Harry Potter and the Egyptian Menace
by emperorHikaru
Summary: ABANDONED Harry Potter x-over. YuGiOh AU. Harry Potter post-epilogue. A new type of magic is discovered under the sands of Egypt, and Harry Potter takes over Hogwarts. Now there are new teachers, a new but familiar Minister of Magic, and the YuGiOh...
1. Chapter 1

I'm not going to pretend that I have anybody eagerly awaiting the next story from me, so I'll just say this: enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Harry Potter, or Egypt. Or England. Sadly.

ZZZz

In the Valley of the Kings, there is yet another archaeological dig. Here, pay dirt has just been struck. A hole in the ground has just been opened, and from the looks of it, it's a new tomb. Now the entire crew is running around, writing reports and getting ready for the exploration.

In his tent, a certain Egyptologist with tri-colored hair was getting ready for his first foray into a previously undiscovered ancient Egyptian tomb. It was something he had been looking forward to for a long time. His grandfather was a renowned archaeologist, and, after 8 years of grueling college work, he had finally allowed the young Dr. Yuugi Mutou, Egyptologist, to come on a dig.

Yuugi nervously checked out his toolkit again. He knew he shouldn't be nervous. After all, he was trained for this, and had been waiting years for it. It had always been his ambition to explore the temples and tombs of ancient cultures. But still, it was a new experience to actually do it, and he was nervous.

Aldous Sterling, a student from England doing some post grad work, came into Yuugi's tent.

"Are you ready?"

"Just about. Are you?"

Aldous nodded. "Yeah. I'm a bit nervous though."

Yuugi chuckled. "Yeah, me too. But it's exciting. This is the first time I get to go into a tomb that no one else ever has before."

Aldous smiled. "Me as well. Well, I'm ready to go. Just come on out when you're ready. We're getting to go in first. We're lucky, most heads wouldn't allow students in fist. Your grandpa is really nice."

"Well, Ojiisan always said that one of his favorite parts of his job was teaching. He loves letting his students get their hands dirty." Yuugi grabbed an ancient Egyptian dictionary. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Aldous folded back the tent flap. Outside Sugoroku Mutou stood, waiting.

"Are you two ready? This is very exciting. The last time a new tomb was discovered here was in 2007. It's been a while."

Yuugi and Aldous quickly began checking their equipment. The batteries on one of the headlamps needed to be changed, and Yuugi thanked God that they checked the lamps. It would be bad to get down there only to find the light was on the verge of going out. Besides that, the equipment seemed to be perfectly fine.

Yuugi grabbed his tool belt and strapped it around his waist. He made sure that he had everything he could need down there: several sizes of brush, tweezers, a crowbar, and other such devices. They all seemed to be there, so he stuffed his dictionary into his belt and snatched a carabiner off the table and attached a small flashlight to it. Aldous did the same, except he called his a torch. They were ready.

But first, Sugoroku had to give them a long lecture on how they were not to disturb anything down there, and how lucky they were that he was allowing them to go down. Not that they didn't know all of this already, but as far as Sugoroku was concerned, he had to give this lecture. They, had of course, both heard from professors about how they would _not_ be allowed to go down alone for years, even if they did have their doctorates. So they had a clue how lucky they were. But the speech came anyway.

Of course Sugoroku trusted his grandson. But he had raised the child, and like any good parent, he felt better having said those things. He noticed the two's nervousness, but did not comment. Nothing he could say would make it any better, and they would get more from this experience without his help. So he stayed quiet.

The students1 walked over to where the entrance to the tomb was just barely big enough for one of them to fit at a time. They lowered themselves down, turned on their headlamps, and discovered themselves in the tomb of a Pharaoh.

A brown-haired man stepped up to a podium in a large hall. Lights flashed as pictures were taken of the round-faced man as he took his position.

Neville Longbottom had never thought that he would become the Minister of Magic. But when he continued to hear about how the politicians continued to attempt to hide magic from muggles, while the wizarding public called for an end to the charade, he knew he had to do something. At the advice of Professor McGonagall, he had quit his post of Herbology professor at Hogwarts, and had run for minister. And he had actually won, something that surprised him more than anybody.

Neville held up his hand, and immediately the reporters became silent. That would have never worked with his students.

"Hello. I have to admit, this is not the speech I expected to give today. I never expected to be Minister. But here I am. And I have a policy announcement to make already: this will be my last speech given to an all-magical audience. I plan to talk with the muggle minster about pulling back the veil we of the magical world have placed on all but a few muggles. Soon, the magical world will become part of the world at large. We must show that we are in fact different than the likes of Voldemort and Grindelwald. And so we end our long era of hiding. We come out to the open NOW!"

Most of the audience erupted into applause. Neville was now one of the best loved public figures in the wizarding world right now. Only Dumbledore and Harry Potter had ever been more popular, and one was dead, and the other had withdrawn to raise his children and godchild. Now, however, those children were all but grown, and Harry still refused to take part in public life. And that thought gave Neville inspiration for the next part of his speech, which was good because the applause were dying down.

"I remember back when I went to Hogwarts. I was friends with Harry Potter, which is a name I think most of you know." The audience giggled slightly. The joke wasn't that great, but they loved the man making it. "Harry lived with muggles. His aunt and uncle were about the worst thing that could happen to a young wizard. But he never hated muggles."

The crowd broke into applause again, but less enthusiastic this time. The minister had talked about his friendship with the Boy Who Lived before, and they didn't care about it much. Neville sensed this.

"The point is, discriminating against all muggles because of how a few might react, or because of the actions of those who lost power many years ago, is ridiculous. It is as bad as discriminating against those of muggle blood, which all of us agree is wrong. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been elected." Neville flashed a smile to the crowd. 2

"Now, some have worried about the posts my wife and I had before this election. I am happy to announce that my wife will be keeping her post at the Leaky Cauldron. My position of Herbology teacher at Hogworts will be taken over by a friend of mine from my time there, Luna Lovegood. The students at Hogworts will be in good hands with her there.

"Now, I want to thank you so much for the faith you have put in me and my ideals. My family has always fought for equality. Years ago, when Voldemort offered me a position in his army, I responded with a shout of 'Dumbledore's Army'. Now, I am happy that Dumbledore's Army has come into the mainstream. And I leave you all with something new. The Dumbledore Party!"

And with that, the crowd exploded. The applause were deafening, as was the shout that went up among the audience. Neville walked off the stage and over to the new fountain, which now showed Wizard, Witch, Merman, and Centaur standing as equals. House-elves had protested about being portrayed as free, though SPEW had demonstrated to add them to the statue. SPEW had entered the world at large now, though it was still made up of muggle-born witches and wizards.

Hannah Longbottom stood by the fountain, and the Daily Prophet got a few good shots of her and her husband together before they disapperated.

Yuugi flashed on his headlamp and was immediately dazzled by the large amounts of gold. This was obviously one of the few tombs not even discovered by tomb robbers. Aldous was a little more careful after seeing his friend's problem. The walls were all gold leafed, and the hieroglyphs, rather than being the drab carvings in the stone walls like they had mostly studied, were as colorful as they were in the Book of Coming Forth by Day.3

Aldous pulled out a notebook and made a rough sketch of a bird's-eye view of the room they had found themselves in. He then turned on a digital recorder and started talking in it.

"We have entered what appears to be a hallway. The walls are gold leafed. The hieroglyphs that cover even this room's walls are very colorful. Indexing will have to start right away."

At this point, he glanced over at Yuugi reproachfully, as the spiky-headed student had excitedly started deciphering the words on the wall. He turned on his own recorder and started to comment on the writings before he noticed his friend's look. He turned off his recorder and grinned sheepishly to his fellow student. "Sorry. I guess that can wait for later."

"But not now," Aldous continued. "We begin by taking the door to the south."

This led the friends into a treasure room. This pharaoh had obviously been rich, even compared to others of his rank. The room was filled with gold, silver, and other precious goods. In the corner there were some human bodies, obviously servants that had been trapped down here to help him in the afterlife.

Aldous continued to sketch his map and dictate notes, so Yuugi thought he'd take a cursory glance at the treasure. There didn't seem to be anything particularly notable about the treasures, except that the name Atem was mentioned several times. Yuugi noted that on his recorder, and postulated that it might be the Pharaoh's name.4

They moved through another door, and entered another hallway, that curved around. Aldous merely mentioned that they entered it, and sketched it on his map before moving on.

The next room was filled, yet again, with what at first appeared to be treasure. But upon closer inspection, Yuugi found that the gold and ivory items all took the form of games. Yuugi flipped on his recorder and made note of this.

As he did so, Aldous had finished in the room and was just waiting for Yuugi. "Really?" he asked, surprised, and walked over to where the shorter 20-something was standing.

Yuugi nodded and pointed it out. He recognized several of the games. "See, there's Ouija, and there's an instruction book for Senet, written on papyrus. And there's a Senet game made out of ebony..." Yuugi, of course, recorded this. "And from the looks of it, Atem lived when Senet was considered a religious game."5

Aldous threw Yuugi a strange look. "Who's Atem?"

Yuugi looked embarrassed. "That seems to be the name of the pharaoh buried here. The name was written all over the treasure, referring to him as the owner."

"Oh, I see. That's interesting. Turn off your recorder and let's get out of here."

Yuugi flipped the switch on his recorder and stood up. He and his friend looked on the three walls that they had not entered from and found no door.

"It must be a dead end," said Aldous.

The post-grads turned around and found that wall just as blank. There was no door. There was no way out.

"What the fuck!" Aldous started screaming his head off.

Yuugi, whose head was a bit calmer under the pressure, tried to hail the dig site. He got nothing but static from his radio. He frowned.

"We seem to be stuck," he sat. He did not move, just sit there in a funk.

Somewhere in England, a black-haired man handed a glass of sherry to his wife before sitting down with his own drink of scotch. The last child that lived at home was out with some friends that evening. He and his wife had a relaxing evening with his father. He had spent a long day doing the dredges of his work, filling out form after form. After all, with the vanquishing of Voldemort, there were very few dark wizards for Aurors to catch.

Ginny Potter reached over and turned on the Wizarding Wireless Network. There were the election results. She and Harry had been following this closely, as one of their old friends was running. She turned excitedly to her husband – Neville had won! They would have to send him an owl.

They sit and sipped their drinks, listening to Neville's speech. It was a good speech. It was very inspiring.

As the speech ended with a yell of "The Dumbledore Party!", Harry laughed. "He never used to be like this. It was DA that did this for him. He used to be so... awkward.

Anyway, I suppose I'll be seeing him soon then."

Harry, as he had, after all, killed Voldemort, had entered the department of Aurors at a high level, as had Ron. Harry, however quickly climbed the latter, and now found himself near the top – he was Head Auror. He would indeed meet with the new Minister of Magic soon. 6

Ginny and he spent a time reminiscing. After all, the thought of Neville as Minister was almost laughable. But they liked the idea of coming out to the world. The magic world had been there for a long time, after all, and it wouldn't be going away any time soon.

Then a sound came from the window. An owl sat on the window sill, tapping for admittance. Harry got up and let the bird in, taking the letter off its leg.

His wife immediately recognized the seal on the back. "Hogwarts? But it's too early for Lily to get her letter."

Harry shook his head. "It's addressed to me. It's from Professor McGonagall."

His wife was as confused as he was. "What's it say?"

Harry read the Letter aloud:

"Dear Harry,

"I have made my decision to retire from Hogwarts. It is my fondest desire that you, as Albus's favorite student, take my position and become Headmaster. I am fully aware of this break in tradition, but as it is Lily Luna's last year, it is time for you to come back to the public spotlight. The headmaster of Hogwarts has always had a part in public affairs, and with Neville's immanent administration, I am sure that we will become open to muggles very soon.

"It seems important to me that one such as you, who was raised by muggles and has seen the worst they have to offer, is in charge of the education of magical children. Please make your decision quickly, as the new Headmaster has many things to do in preparation for the new school year."

Ginny frowned. "Are you going to take it?"

"I'm not sure." Her husband shook his head.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Ginny hurried to see who it could be while Harry still stood with the letter in his hand. As Ginny showed the new Minister of Magic into the sitting room, the head auror took a quite large sip of his scotch.

A house-elf ran off to get the preferred brandy of Neville, and the round-faced man looked at his old friend.

"What a wonderful day! I'm so excited to start! I mean, I know it will be hard work, and your department will fill for sure, but... what's that?" He had noticed the letter in Harry's hand.

"It's from Professor McGonagall. She wants me to be Headmaster." Harry's head shook again. "I don't think I'm going to take it."

Neville looked at Harry. "Why not? I think you should. Ron can be the head auror. And we need a head of education. Nothing like that nasty Umbrige." Neville had caught the dark look from both his guests. "Someone to work with the school. I think You'd fit that roll. And as Headmaster, you could do it perfectly."

Harry paused. His wife took the opportunity to voice her agreement with the minister. "I could always write stories from the school."

"Fine. I'll do it. Sounds like it's a good idea. But I want to have some time to train Ron."

"That's fine. You and he both come to the first cabinet meeting next week, and the next day you announce your resignation as head auror and your position at Hogwarts and as my head of education."

Harry nodded. He was beginning to like this idea already.

"In the meantime, I came here to get away from the fucking press. No offense Ginny."7

"None taken. I always considered myself more of a Quiditch player, anyway."

Neville smiled. "That's good. Hannah will be joining us as soon as she can put off the press."8

"That's fine. I'll put on the tea then."

Neville smiled.

Aldous had long calmed down, resigned to his fate. Yuugi got bored and started translating the hieroglyphs. Aldous had protested it's uselessness at first, but Yuugi had insisted, and said that when the others found them, they could at least have done something.

But now, he came close to where the door had been.

"That's funny. The story breaks off here in mid-sentence and continues here. It's like the doorway had something else on it. Let's see here... It speaks of the trap! It says that we can leave if we can beat a game of Senet."

"What? But isn't Senet a two-player game? Or is only one of us allowed out?"

"I don't know. But let's see what happens anyway. I actually am Senet champion back in Japan. It says to use the ebony one."

Yuugi set up the Senet board quickly as Aldous commented on the fact that Japan had a Senet championship.

"Well, it's mostly college students."

Once Yuugi had the board set up, he waited to see what would happen. When nothing did, he threw the knucklebone in the set and moved one of the good pieces accordingly. His eyes then widened in amazement as the knucklebone threw itself and then moved one of the pieces trying to keep him from the afterlife.

"Holy crap!"

The yell caught Aldous's attention. "What?"

Yuugi made another play to demonstrate. Aldous's eyes also became the size of saucers. "Maybe that's what it means."

Yuugi continued to play. For a scary moment it looked like he was going to lose. But then an opening came, and Yuugi moved his piece into position. "I won."

The door did not open, though. Instead, Yuugi's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell over. Aldous flew back into a panic and quickly became rough in his attempts to rouse his friend. Nothing worked, however. Eventually he pulled a stick out of his pocket and muttered under his breath. "_Renervate._" 9

Even this produced no noticeable effect. Aldous sat down and resigned himself to the fate of dying in this tomb. That seemed kind of ironic to him. Then he thought of the live burials in the other room and shuddered. He couldn't stand the thought of being found like that.

He eventually curled up and went to sleep. It was a light sleep, full of dreams about tombs and Senet-playing ghosts. So it was no surprise when he was woken up by the sounds of someone next to him. He peered into the pitch-black darkness, and cursed himself for turning out the lights. But a moment later a light flashed on.

There stood Yuugi. He had apparently gotten over whatever had caused him to keel over. Aldous was cautious. Was it possible the short Egyptologist was possessed? It seemed likely.

Yuugi walked to the spot where the door used to be and appeared to make some sort of motion, and the wall disappeared. Aldous was surprised, the tri-haired man had never mentioned any magic, and he did not appear to use a wand.

Yuugi turned around and motioned to the brunette. "Are you coming?

Aldous stood and walked over to where Yuugi was standing. "What happened?"

Yuugi smiled and motioned for Aldous to walk with him. "After I beat that game, I found myself in complete blackness. It was like I was unconscious and conscious at the same time. One of the weirder sensations I have felt." At this he gave a little smile. "I felt like information was being... downloaded in my brain. Like someone was speaking without words, giving me a lecture so quickly that I could never remember it, but at the same time... I knew _everything _that it said. Not word for word, since there were no words, but I knew every detail of what it was trying to teach me."

At this point Yuugi stopped in his tracks and turned towards his new confidante. "There's magic, Aldous."

Aldous was shocked. Yuugi had learned magic? Aldous had grown up as a muggle-born wizard, so he knew of the existence of magic, but the idea that one could learn magic from a spirit that played ancient Egyptian religious games was incredible.

Yuugi continued. "I learned about a type of magic called shadow magic. Although it seems there are more types and forms of magic. This was a type of magic performed by the ancient Egyptian priests. This pharaoh ruled when the magic was all but lost. His teacher was the last one to know how to use it, and the pharaoh had no pupil. So he set it up so that the only people that could come into his crypt and come out were those that could play a game of shadows and survive. Shadow magic is fixed on games. The only reason I could get out of there was because the door was set to respond to the one who won that game. My magic would be all but pointless without it."10

Aldous ogled at Yuugi. Shadow magic? Ancient Priests? That was all too much for him. The worst part was how close the word 'shadow' was to 'dark'. Had his friend become a dark wizard? He would send an owl to the auror's office tomorrow to see what he should do.

They came to the doorway that they had come out of. It was dark outside now, and the majority of the camp was asleep. Sugoroku's tent still had the subtle glow of a oil-burning lamp, though. The old man must have been waiting for his grandson. Yuugi and Aldous went to go check in with the dig head.

The last thing Yuugi had been expecting when he got back was to have a teary-eyed old man tackle him. As little as Yuugi expected it, Aldous had expected it even less.

"Where have you been? You've been in there for a day and a half now. Search teams found nothing. Went through the whole tomb twice. I thought I had sent you two to your deaths. Don't ever do that again!"

It took the two a while to understand. They had been down there for almost two days. The old man had freaked out when they were down there longer than they were supposed to be, as it was his grandson, after all. They insisted that they were fine and would tell him all about what happened tomorrow.

They went back to their tents and the camp was normal and quiet for the night. The only unusual thing was an owl flying out of the camp and to the north-northeast.

ZZZz

1 Yuugi and Aldous are both doing post-grad work with Sugoroku. Just in case that wasn't clear.

2 I'm afraid that Neville may be a little out of character here. I tried to make him more like he was in the fifth book on.

3 Also known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

4 None of the Yamis will be appearing in this fic. I just thought I'd throw that little reference in.

5 I actually did some research on ancient Egyptian games. These were both actually from Egypt.

6 According to J.K. Rowling, Harry actually did quickly become head auror. I found this out after writing this. Go figure.

7 After joining then leaving the Harpies, Ginny becomes the senior Quiditch correspondent for the _Daily Prophet_.

8 Neville marries Hannah Abbott after the series. Thank god for Wikipedia!

9 How many people saw this coming? Huh?

10 That's right, no items either. Sorry, fans.

And hey, a special thanks to esama. Some of her ideas inspired portions of the fic. Although none of them were used directly, they became my springboard. Thanks, esama!


	2. Chapter 2

I'm going to try to keep the author's notes to a bare minimum. So all I have to say is enjoy!

zZZz

Harry was sitting in his office, wrapping up his affairs as head auror. He had three days left, unless something came up. Luckily, the likelihood of anything doing so was very low, as most of the Death Eaters had been rounded up by now, and other dark wizards were in short supply.

His reply to Professor McGonagall – who had insisted he call her Minerva – had made her quite happy. She was apparently afraid that she'd have to turn the school over to her deputy headmistress, a bit of a ditz, very loyal, but not who'd you want running the school.

It was in the middle of this contemplation of his that Ron had burst in, brandishing a letter. "Bad timing, Harry. A British wizard working in Egypt with some muggles saw some pretty disturbing stuff. You and I need to go down there and sort it out ourselves."

Harry sighed. Bad timing indeed. He had to get an emergency portkey to Egypt, now, too. "Why can't the Egyptian council take care of it?"

Ron shook his head. "Egypt refuses to touch it. First of all, it has to do with a tomb, which the Egyptian council has repeatedly refused to work with. And second of all, it's a British wizard and a Japanese muggle. The only reason they have to help is because we asked, and we're not too popular in the rest of the wizarding world right now."

Harry knew Ron was right. Ever since Neville's speech, the delegate to the International Confederation of Wizards had been busy as hell trying to keep other wizarding countries from going ballistic. America's Department of Magic was having meetings every day. The other day the Secretary of Magic and the Minister of Magic had a top-secret meeting which had royally pissed off the Secretary. Neville had been both amused and slightly angry, and revealed to Harry that the Secretary had tried to convince him not to reveal about the wizarding world.

So Harry jotted a note to the minister explaining the portkey and sent it in paper-airplane form to his office. He then grabbed a quill off his desk, only to replace his favorite writing instrument and grab one that was less precious. He stepped out of his private office and announced that he was leaving on a mission he had to take care of himself. After persuading Tonks that just he and Ron were just as good, in fact better, for this mission than a larger group.1

Harry stepped back in his office and changed into muggle clothes. It was now standard that all aurors had training in muggle studies and could pass as a muggle without even trying. So muggle clothes were standard issue in the auror office. Ron had already change, and was now wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a white t-shirt, with a khaki vests. He looked just the part of the amateur archaeologist. Harry changed into a pair of shorts and a polo shirt. He put on a baseball cap touting the Liverpool football team and looked like an English tourist. They both touched the quill-turned portkey and felt the familiar tug behind their navel.

They arrived near the tourist's entrance to the valley of the kings, and joined quickly with a large tour group. Harry opened the letter and scanned it until he found where he was supposed to meet the British wizard. It was in Tutankhamen's tomb, next to the western wall, by the entrance. There would be so many people here that it would be hard to tell that they were meeting here. Harry liked the guy's mind. He checked his name. Aldous. A good British name, there. He looked forward to meeting the guy.

There was the tomb. Harry elbowed his friend and went to the west wall. The Liverpool cap turned out to set them apart from the crowd, who were almost all _very_ American. So when a voice with a British accent asked them if they were the ones here to meet him about his problem, Harry knew this was the guy.2

Aldous was obviously more accustomed to the heat than almost anyone here, looking close to Ron in dress. Aldous's long hair was kept in a ponytail, and he had a floppy brimmed hat on his head. He motioned them away. "Come on, we need to talk, and I know just the place."

An Egyptian with platinum blond hair watched them as they left with lavender eyes. He followed them shortly thereafter to the small bar they had entered, which was thankfully air-conditioned. Malik listened to the conversation long enough to know who these people were, aurors from Britain. And not just any aurors, but the head auror, the Boy Who Lived, the Man who defeated Voldemort, Harry Potter himself, and his second-in-command and best friend, Ron Weasley.

Malik sat with them, and they all turned their gazes to him, obviously annoyed about his intrusion. Malik asked the barkeeper, Shelid, for the usual, and asked them if they were the ones with the dark wizard problem.

The reaction was immediate. The aurors, who had their hands on their wands the whole time, drew them, as did Aldous, although a second of fumbling later. Shelid drew his wand on those that seemed to be attacking one of his favorite customers, but put it down when Malik waived at him. "Now, now, Shelid, one should not go around hexing our foreign guests. That would be bad practice.

Harry and Ron did not even begin to back down, although Aldous did. "Who are you?" asked the black-haired savior of the magical world.

Malik grinned and straightened his spine. "I'm Malik, auror extraordinaire and representative of the Egyptian Council of Magic Users in this affair."

Ron's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "The Council said they refused to work with a Japanese muggle and a British wizard."

Malik nodded. "That we did. Until we found out that Britain would send in two aurors into our territory. We need to keep tabs on you. And I wanted to help from the beginning, so don't hate me," He frowned. "That was just the only way I could convince my superiors to let me come."

Malik then produced his letter of commission, and his orders to prove who he was. Harry and Ron did the same, then Harry showed him the letter Aldous had written to prove that he was coming to investigate a possible threat to a British citizen and not just invading Egypt. Malik nodded. "Now that it's all official, can we get to business? I want to hear about this."

Aldous waited until the drinks came, four cold Stella beers around. Neither of the newly-arrived Brits thought it was as good as English ale, but it sure was good in the heat. Over the beers, Aldous described what happened. The three officials were all dubious of the experience, but it was obvious that Aldous was certain that what he saw was real.3

"Ever since, I have tried to keep Yuugi away from town, because he might stumble on this place. I don't know if his magic would let him see this bar, but I wanted to be sure."

Harry expressed his doubts to the group and the other two officials agreed. Aldous shook his head. "He showed me his magic several times. It's completely different then our magic. He doesn't use a wand, he plays games. And the loser is penalized or the winner is rewarded. Or both. This is real. You have to believe me."

Ron and Harry looked at each other. "We'll check it out," agreed Harry.

Malik nodded. "I have to go wherever they do. And I'm intrigued."

"I just have one more question. How did he demonstrate his power to you. It seems dangerous." That was the redhead.

"He set up a game between the two of us to be safe. He just got to learn a secret about me when he won. And he always won. I told him how I keep my hair clean in the desert." And he laughed.

Ron nodded, satisfied. Aldous threw some money to Shelid, who waved them out. Aldous then led the way to the camp, which he told the aurors to wait at the edge of. "I don't want to cause more of a scene then I have to around the muggles."

Malik's eyebrows rose. "Do you keep up with the wizarding world at all?"  
Aldous shook his head. "I used to subscribe to the _Daily Prophet_ and listen to the Wizarding Wireless, but not any more. To suspicious around muggles."

Harry didn't doubt it. He had lived with muggles for his first seventeen years of life, after all. Malik gave him a look. "Your Minister of Magic is about to spill the beans. It was an election promise, apparently."

Aldous's eyes widened. "Really? I have a hard time believing it. My services might be useful in the wizarding world after all. I'm a muggle expert." He added the last part after the others had given him a confused look. "Either way, let's try to hide it for now, all right?"

The three wizards watched as he went to go look for Yuugi. Ron turned to Harry. "He's probably going to be gone for a while. Want to play a game of wizard's chess?"

Malik looked on in surprise as the other two aurors pulled out a chessboard and begin to play with pieces that moved around the board and attacked each other. "Do you always carry a board on you?"

Harry laughed, and after a moment, Ron did too. "It's mostly paperwork these days, especially for the two of us. We play quite often. It just made sense to carry it along when I changed into muggle clothes."

It took Malik a while to remember that in England, muggles and wizards wore two distinctly different styles of clothing. In Egypt, it wizards wore traditional clothing, which was not uncommon for muggles either. 4

The game was almost over, with a win from Ron, when a voice none of them recognized piped up. "Is that chess?"

A tricolored head of hair was coming, escorted by the pony-tailed Aldous. Ron ordered the final move and checkmated Harry, and Harry cleaned up the game. "Yeah, always love a game of chess."

Malik smiled. "You must be Yuugi."

Yuugi nodded. "Yeah. Aldous said you guys wanted to see me. What is this all about?"

"These are some friends of mine, Yuugi. They want to talk to you about your new power. They're sort of experts in this field."

Yuugi's eyes narrowed. Now he felt betrayed. He had asked Aldous not to tell anybody, except his Grandfather, who they told after they came out of the tomb. He didn't want anyone to think he was a freak. And besides that, there was another problem.

"What sort of experts?"

Harry pulled out his wand. "We're wizards." And with that he created an ice cold Kirin for Yuugi, an ale for himself and the other two Brits (with an "I thought you'd appreciate this" to Aldous), and a Stella for Malik. Now he had proven himself hospitable, gotten himself a nice English drink, and proved their claim to Yuugi. "And now you have proof."5

Yuugi took his Kirin wide-eyed. "It's been so long since I've had one of these. Thanks."

"These men are from the wizarding government. I wrote to them after that night in the crypt, and they want to make sure your power isn't..."

"Evil. And I would like to say that only _I_ am from the government. These two are from the British Ministry of Magic and have no jurisdiction here."

Harry turned to the offending Egyptian. "Except that one of our citizens was involved and you refused to touch it."6

"True."

"Wait, wait, wait. You think that Shadow magic is evil? No, it's just a different form of magic. Your type of magic is blood related, while mine is possible for anybody. Though anyone with my magic should be able to preform your white magic. Shadow magic is soul-based."

Yuugi looked at the three new wizards more closely now. They seemed to be normal people, except for the flow of white magic around him that the shadows had taught him to see. But the Egyptian... there was something different about him, and Yuugi could not put his finger on it.

Harry convinced Yuugi to show him how the shadow magic worked in a harmless game of Wizard's chess with Ron. It was a close match, but the little shadow magician won against Britain's wizard's chess champion. Afterwards, Ron felt compelled to tell him about his upcoming promotion.

"But where's Harry going?"

Harry answered, as Ron was too busy being red in the face after he had succumbed to the unusual magic. Harry wasn't as surprised, as he had not expected his friend's training against truth serums to protect him against this other form of magic. "I'm going to be headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's not official until later this week. But both the Minister and Minerva – that's the current headmistress – know. But this doesn't seem to be evil."

Harry produced a letter for Aldous. "We recommend you getting out of Egypt. We are asking all British wizards and witches living abroad to return to England soon. The rest of the world is not happy with us right now, and will become less so soon. And bring him with you, bring him to Hogwarts. I'd like to find out more about this."

Yuugi spoke up. "Would you... consider letting me teach Shadow magic to your students? It's sort of my... mission in life to teach shadow magic again. It used to be the most respected magic in the world. Now all the people who know about it are right here. That is, unless Aldous told someone else."

Harry cocked his head to one side. "I don't know. We'll talk about it when you get there."

The wizards got ready to depart, and Malik pulled Harry aside. "You do realize that I will have to report the change in British leadership to my superiors."

Harry smiled. "It's fine. I hope you get promoted for it."

Then he and Ron disapperated, Malik quickly following suit.

A white-haired man with pale skin walked down Charing Cross road, looking at the shops. He needed a place to stay, and somewhere to practice his art. He had recently lost his establishment, since he had no income to speak of. In his art, there was such a thing as being too good.

But none of the places here looked like they would be good. He frowned, as he was sure that Charing Cross road was where he was supposed to be. He supposed he would continue until the next block, then he would give up. However, walking down, he only saw more of the same. Bookstores, and nothing more. But, just as he was about to turn away in search of somewhere else, he saw something that looked interesting.

It was an old building. It was not modernized like the many other old buildings on Charing Cross, but it still looked loved and well cared for. He looked at the old-fashioned sign in front proclaiming its name. The Leaky Cauldron. Interesting. He opened the door and stepped inside.

When he did, every head turned towards him. There seemed to be a dress code here that everyone else knew, and he did not fit in at all. He could not help but wonder how all these people and robes did not attract the attention of the people on the street.

The towhead turned his attention to the counter. Standing behind it was a woman with long brown hair. But of more interest was the man standing behind and to the side of her, like a bodyguard. She seemed to be of more importance than a mere pub landlady.

He walked up to the counter. "Excuse me, madame, is it okay if I get a drink here. I thought it was just a pub, but everyone looks like they're doing something I don't understand. Everybody seems to be dressed in robes.

Hannah Longbottom looked at the strange man. He looked to be in his mid twenties, not nearly young enough to be a muggle-born wizard that had yet to receive his Hogwarts letter. And yet here he was, in a building that only wizards could see. "What's your name?"

"Ryou Bakura."

That name sounded Asian. Hannah thought that he looked strange. He had a different look around his eyes. Maybe he was a foreign wizard where the customs were different. "Your English is quite good."

Ryou smiled at her. "Thank you. My mother was English, but after my sister and she died in a car wreck, I lived in Japan with my father. So I learned English and Japanese both as my first language. Although I dare say I have more practice in Japanese."

Hannah smiled. "So do all wizards in Japan wear muggle clothes."

Ryou looked at the woman quizzically. "Pardon me?"

Hannah was aghast. He really had no idea about magic. Well, she had no choice. She could either modify his memory or figure out how he could see the place. She decided, in the face of the unprecedented event, on the latter. "Look, deary, why don't I set you up with a room upstairs. Free of charge. Tonight you and I can have a little talk. I'll explain it all to you."

The other patrons of the pub had long since gone back to their drinks and conversations among themselves, deciding that he must have just been an auror disguised as a muggle. So when they noticed the landlady leading him upstairs, they made no comment.

Hannah shuffled Ryou to the last room on the floor. She gave him a room with the window facing Charing Cross rather than the alley behind, which he was thankful for. "Just make yourself comfortable here. I'll be back in a couple of hours with dinner. Then we could talk.

Ryou went and sat on the bed. It was surprisingly comfortable. He pulled a swath of silk wrapped around something out of his pocket. He unwrapped the object, revealing it to be a deck of slightly-over sized cards. He shuffled through them before pulling out a single card and setting it down. He then shuffled and cut the deck several times, before laying them out in a particular fashion. He covered the card he had originally put down with another, crossed that with another, put cards on the sides of the cross he had made, then four more in a vertical line to the right of the cross and directions. He pulled a small notebook out of the other pocket and wrote down the reading.

Ryou used a Ukiyoe tarot deck. This reading was to ask what he should do now that he seemed to be in the place the cards had told him to go. He had used the magician as his indicator card, symbolizing his art and lack of funds. The cards basically told him to wait. He sighed, writing down his summary and a more detailed explanation of the reading. He was just cleaning up the cards when Hannah walked in holding a warm sandwich for him and the same for her.

"Here you go. Would you like something to drink?"

"Some tea would be great, if you have some, madam."

Hannah beamed at him. It was refreshing to see someone not get tidily the first chance they had. "The kettle's on downstairs. I'll go fetch some." She returned moments later with two cups of the hot beverage.

"So what was that I saw you doing earlier?"

Ryou blushed. "That was tarot. I am an occultist by profession." He looked down. "It doesn't pay very well, which is why the cards led me here."

Hannah figured that this would be a good direction to head down. She continued to talk to him about his art, and learned a bit about him.

He and his sister had been close. They were fraternal twins, and when they were young his mother and his sister had died in a terrible car crash. He and his father had moved to his father's original country of Japan. However, his father was not home most of the time, and Ryou had had to find comfort in other ways. 7

It wasn't long before the young Mr. Bakura discovered the occult. He found the practice comforting, and found that mysteries tended to open up for him in ways they wouldn't for anyone else. Anything that he set his mind to came easily to him, but he found the Tarot the easiest, and the most comforting.

He had made his way in the world as a occultist, giving readings to those who could pay or who needed them. However, he was good, and told the truth, which is the last thing these people wanted. So he had a lack of customers. He had moved to London to be near his mother's and sister's grave, but the rent of his apartment/workplace was expensive, and he ran out of money. He had consulted the cards, and they had told him to come here.

It was all very interesting, and Hannah took pity on the boy. But it did not help her figure out how he could see the Leaky Cauldron. She decided to talk to her husband and figure out what to do.

She explained about the world the unfortunate man had stumbled upon. She told him about magic, and how only wizards and witches could see certain locations – like the Leaky Cauldron. "Don't worry dear, my husband's a very powerful man in the wizarding world. He'll get you all sorted out right and proper. You just wait here until then. Free of charge. But I'm afraid you can't go deeper in the wizarding world right now. Sorry."

Ryou smiled at her. "That's fine, and thank you for your kind hospitality, Mrs. Longbottom."

She smiled at the nice boy. "Well, it's getting late. You should get some sleep. Maybe I'll send some customers up for readings tomorrow."

Ryou smiled. "That would be fine."

Ryou laid on his back, but before he fell asleep, he wondered why she had a framed gold coin on the wall downstairs.

Harry and Ron walked into the room where there was a large table, with people they recognize seated around them, and, for the first time, Nevile Longbottom at the head of the table. He was more resolute than Harry could have ever imagined him thinking, until he remembered in their first year at Hogwarts Nevile blocking Harry, Ron, and Hermione from going out at night. He laughed, which drew strange looks, until he described his remembrances. Then Ron and the Minister laughed as well.

A couple of more people shuffled in, including the head of the Department of Mysteries, looking slightly disappointed with smoking hair. Obviously an experiment had gone wrong.

Harry listened as business as usual went on, mostly just keeping his ears perked for anything that affected him. It was not long before Nevile got to the Head Auror.

"Harry Potter will soon not be meeting us as the Head Auror. He is leaving to become headmaster at Hogwarts. He will be joining us from time to time, however, as an education council. I look forward to continuing to work with my old friend. Ronald Weasley will be taking his place as head Auror. In light of these events, I will be saving my speech for the muggles until September the third, so that Harry can safely join us as the full-fledged Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Not long afterwards, the meeting ended. Before the minister could run off, Harry caught up with him. "Look, Nevile, I need to talk with you sometime. Hogwarts business.

Nevile nodded. "I'll come see you and Ginny tonight. Mind if I bring Hannah as well?"

"The more the merrier."

"Good. See you there."

Ron, who had heard the conversation, inquired as to the nature of the business.

"Come on by. Bring Hermione. You two could probably help, too."

Harry and Ron walked to the aurors' office, and Harry finished putting his personal office into boxes. "It's ready for you, Ron. Tomorrow I'm just going to make the announcement and head for Hogwarts."

Ron smiled and wished his best friend good luck. Harry then took off for the ministry disapperation area in the foyer.

Later that night, Ginny and Harry were sitting in their drawing room. Once again, Harry was sipping scotch, while Ginny was drinking sherry. This time, however, Neville and Hannah Longbottom and Ron and Hermione Weasley were there. After saying hi to "Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione", Lily went out with some friends of hers from Hogwarts.

After the house-elves served everyone drinks, Harry brought out a piece of parchment with a letterhead from Hogwarts on it. "This is a letter I got from Minerva. She announced my imminent position at the school to the teachers when I accepted. Several of the teachers quit when they heard about the break in tradition. Seven of them, in fact. If I can't find teachers to replace them, we can't open this year."

All present looked horrified. The idea of Hogwarts not being able to open was positively stupefying. There had been only two threats of it, and both had been because of Voldemort attacking the school. "Well, what teachers do you need? I'll see if we can't dig someone up."

"There's a list attached."

The letter came with another piece of parchment. It had a list of offices that still needed to be filled.

Divination

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Ancient Runes

Muggle Studies

Charms

Transfiguration

Potions

The guests all studied the list. "I know that Luna is good at potions. She could take over there." His wife nodded. "And I think I've found someone for Divination."

Everybody looked at her. "A muggle boy came into the pub today. It turned out that he was one of the best divination masters I have ever met."

All eyes stared at her. She was more then a little nervous. "Yes, he had no clue of the wizarding world. Had only moved to England from Japan last year. He speaks English quite well," She assured. "He's half English. Grew up in Japan, though."

Harry frowned thoughtfully. "Send him to the castle. I'll give him an interview."

Ron snapped his fingers. "What about those guys we met in Egypt – Aldous and Yuugi. Aldous is a muggle expert, and Yuugi wanted to teach anyway. Maybe we can find something for him to teach."

"Well, that just leaves us with Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Ancient Runes."

Nevile shook his head. "That's still quite a feat."

Hermione piped up. "I've been looking for a new job. The ministry is starting to bore me. No offense."

"None taken."

"Anyhow, I can teach Charms. I'm quite good at it."

Ron shot her a glance. "You're quite good at any subject, Hermione." His wife blushed, but didn't argue.

Ginny said, "I wanted to come to the castle anyway. I'll quit the _Prophet_ and teach Transfiguration. I'm not bad."

Harry gave her a squeeze. "You're really good. That means we only have two left."

Nevile glanced at the clock. "I have to go. Ministry business. But if I find anyone, I'll write you immediately, and send them along."

Ron and Hermione stayed a little longer, chatting about old times. All in all, it was an enjoyable night. Lily came in just as they were leaving. She went up to her room barely pausing to say good night, and Harry sat down to write an letter to Aldous, advising him of the situation, and asking that he come to the school and get interviewed. Yuugi needed a guide to the castle anyway.

zZZz

1 After all, they are going to into another country without express permission and all that. Better to keep a low profile.

2 I'm assuming this. I don't actually know the statistics pertaining to who visits Egypt. For all I know, British people are more common there.

3 Stella is apparently the most popular Egyptian beer. Props to Wikipedia yet again.

4 Again, I'm assuming. I've never been to Egypt, myself.

5 Kirin is a popular Japanese beer.

6 I think there is some sort of clause in international law about that. If not, then there is in wizard international law. After all, there isn't a British Wizarding embassy.

7 This is mostly true of Ryou's biography.

zZZz

By the way, if anyone has title ideas for this story, please tell me. Also, any suggestions or creative criticisms would be nice.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh my god, I am so sorry. This took so long, and it is so much shorter. I can make all sorts of excuses, but I won't. I'm just going to give the disclaimer and hope that you can enjoy it anyway

Disclaimer: I do not own any charicater, place, event, or anything else, excepting those that I have invented. I especially do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Harry Potter.

zZZz

Harry followed Minerva McGonagall into the carriage drawn by the skeletal equine thestrals that was set to take them to Hogwarts. He had met her in Hogsmead. He had apperated to The Hog's Head pub, which was once run by the brother of Albus Dumbledore, but was now run by Fleur Weasley and Charlie, her husband, and brother-in-law to Harry. He gave them both hugs, and explained to them that Ginny would be coming down when the quidditch season was over, and the change-of-address forms were finished. He and Ginny were rich enough to keep the house as a holiday home, while officially living at the school, so the house would not be sold.

Now, as Harry wheeled toward his new home and work, not to mention alma mater, the soon-to-be ex-Headmistress was talking at him, stuffing tones of paperwork into his hands, mostly consisting of how to get letters out to students and their supply lists, as well as the new teachers – she had received a list.

"Now, are you sure about this – what would you call him – ex-muggle?"

Harry shrugged noncommittally. "If he can do what Hannah said he can, than I have no doubt that he will be a great teacher. Better than Professor Trelwany was, that's for sure."

McGonagall did not look happy about Harry talking down one of his old teachers – and the one who made the prophesy between him and Voldemort, no less! - but she had her own opinion on the owlish professor, so she didn't say anything.

"Aldous Sterling is a name I don't recognize. You said he's a British muggle expert, right?"

Harry nodded. "He was a Hufflepuff, probably entered after I had left. Voldemort was conquered when he was a child. Been living the las decade or so as a muggle. I think he's a little younger than Teddy."

McGonagall looked straight at him. "I see."

Harry continued. "I wrote to see if he would take the job and agreed, but he wants to talk to me before it's official."

"You told me. What about this Japanese muggle he's bringing with him? Yogi?"

"It's Yuugi. With the 'u' sound being held out longer than normal."

"Yes, of course. I don't speak five different languages."

"With a smattering of three others." The younger one of the two in the carriage grinned.

"Yes, well, how well do you know the languages of your magical creatures?"

Harry looked sour. "If I want to talk to mermaids I'll just stick my head under water."

"You were telling me about Yuugi."

"Oh, yes. Well, I told you about what I know in the my letters. That's part of the reason that I'm letting him stay here, so that we can learn more about his magic. He said that his – shadow – magic awakened our – white – magic in muggles."

"And your to let him teach it to the kids?"

"Only if the minister and I both agree that it's safe. I believe that it will be."

By this time the two had arrived at Hogwarts and walked into the entrance hall. Harry smiled. "However old I get, this still feels like home. It's been a long time."

McGonagall also gave one of her rare warm smiles. "Yes, that's just one more reason both Dumbledore and I believed that you would make a good headmaster."

After Harry had a few more minutes in reverie, Harry walked in to the great hall to meet up with the few professors that remained. "'arry! It's been so long! Good to see yer."

"Hullo, Hagrid." The half-giant had not seemed to age much at all. He had a few extra wrinkles, but seemed more or less the same. His giant blood kept him from aging too much.

"Hello, Harry." This came from the crazy girl Ravenclaw turned Potions and Herbology teacher. She no longer had the definitive radish earrings, but she still looked like she was looking at something that no-one else could see. Nevile had told him that their mutual friend had lost many of her weird notions since school, but still had more than enough to share. He greeted her, and promised to catch up with her later.

The arithmancy master was a new person to Harry, not nearly as bad as that slime ball Snape. He had an accent that reminded Harry of the Bulgarian school he had competed with in the Tri-Wizard Tournament – Durmstrang. He was surprised that his arithmancy master was a distant cousin of the quidditch player from the same school – Victor Krum, a bit of a rival of Harry's. Professor Krum, however, was from the intellectual, not athletic, branch of what turned out to be a far-flung clan in the east. His given name was Edvard.

The drab Professor Binns floated by, and greeted Harry. He did not seem too excited, though. He had seen too many new Professors, even his ex-students. This was no big deal to him.

After saying hello to the three he had known previously, and being introduced to Edvard, he went to the gargoyle statue that stood before the entrance to the hallway. He gave the password.

"_Sandpiper._"

The gargoyle sprung aside, revealing the moving spiral staircase that led to the Headmaster's office. McGonagall had obviously cleaned it out, as the only things left were the paintings of the old headmasters and the barest of furniture. However, in one corner...

"Fawkes, is that you?"

"Yes, Harry."

Harry was startled. He had not heard that voice in years, and the owner had a white marble tomb outside. He quickly realized where it was coming from, the third most recent picture on the wall. "Hello, Professor."

"Hello, Harry. I'm glad to see that you have decided to take the job. In those last few years, I had hoped that you might succeed Minerva."

Harry smiled, glad to know that his mentor had thought so much of him. The various pictures on the wall welcomed him as the new headmaster, and then went silent. Dumbledore's painting then directed him to a drawer in the headmaster's desk, which appeared to be empty. He gave it the password that Minerva had given him as the headmaster's password, as it would get him into any place that he wanted, and the bottom of the drawer disappeared. There was a key. He picked it up and turned to Dumbledore's picture. "What's this for?" But the old man had left, gone to view another area through one of his many pictures scattered throughout the wizarding world.

Minerva came through the door then. "Harry, it's time I let you in on a few secrets... oh."

She had seen the key in his hand. "Do you know what this is for?"

"Yes, that's one of the things that I wanted to tell you about. I suppose that it's better just to show you." She went to the back of the wall, and touched a single stone in the wall with her wand, revealing a keyhole. Harry put the key in the hole.

The patch of ground that he and McGonagall were standing on lowered itself, like an elevator. It stopped in an area that seemed to be behind the spiral staircase that led to the headmaster's – his – office. It appeared to be a library, but all the books were obviously not meant to be published. Most appeared either to be some sort of scrapbook or a personal journal. Also, in the back, was a set of drawers where some articles of history were kept.

"This is the headmaster's archives. These books are all the secrets of Hogwarts that the headmasters and headmistresses have discovered, since about half a century after the founders left."

She led him into another room, what appeared to be the end of the little area that was all his. On one wall was the seal of Hogwarts, with a scroll underneath, with the words "An institute to banish the evils of this world" inscribed on it.

"This is the true mission of Hogwarts, and of the Order of the Phoenix. They have always been as one. The world is full of evil, and the founders came together to stop it. Of course, they had different ideas of what 'evil' was, which is what led to the split between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Those that defeat the Dark Lords have always been the head of both institutions. And now I pass it on to you. I think you'll find most of what you need in here. The basics are in the book I left on the end of my shelf, traditionally recompiled by each new headmaster. Now, I'm going to go. I have a home in Greece waiting for me."

Weeks later, a wizard with long brown hair and dark earthy red robes walked in, accompanied by a man with hair in three colors, dressed in muggle clothes, albeit strange ones, with his collection of leather and buckles making him look like a wizard who tried and failed to look like a muggle. They walked straight to the gargoyle in front of the headmaster's office, pausing only long enough for the wizard to show a letter to Filch's successor, Riley Balfour, the new caretaker, and a much nicer one. He told them to keep going. Upon reaching the gargoyle, the wizard gave the password.

"_Quaffle."_

The gargoyle leaped aside, allowing the two up to the headmaster's office.

Harry was sitting in behind his desk, perusing the book of Basic Secrets for Headmasters of Hogwarts. He was surprised how much of it he had already known, being one of the more mischievous students in his day, and having the Marauder's Map. However, a few facts were useful, such as the location of the house-elves' quarters. Winky had passed on not long ago, and Harry had visited the graves. At the knock on the door, he put the book in the fake drawer.

"Come in."

When Aldous and Yuugi walked in, Harry smiled. "Hello, you two. I have something for you."

Harry pulled out a contract and handed it to Aldous, who would peruse it before signing to become the new Muggle Studies teacher. He then motioned for Yuugi to sit.

"I want to talk to you about your request."

Yuugi looked hopeful. He knew that if Harry wanted to talk about his request, he would likely grant it with provisions. Now he just had to see what the provisions were. If they were anywhere near acceptable, he'd do the job.

"We are understaffed. If you can teach another subject, I'll allow you to teach your magic."

Yuugi beamed. "I can read Hieroglyphs, and I know the History of Magic up to Ancient Egypt better than any other human alive. And history was my best subject."

"How well are you at learning other languages?"

"Pretty good. I speak English, Arabic, Japanese, and Ancient Egyptian. Well, I do now, I got it from the shadows. Before I spoke what we _thought _Ancient Egyptian was."

Harry nodded. "All right, I'll put you through a quick course, and you can teach Ancient Runes. Let me just get a contract..."

Harry started to rummage through his desk. He pulled out a piece of parchment similar to Aldous's, and started making some changes.

As he handed it to Yuugi, a knock came from the door. With a quizzical look on his face, Harry got up and answered the door.

To everyone's surprise, standing in the doorway was a platinum blond Egyptian. "I need to talk to you."

Harry stood aside and allowed Malik to pass. Malik's eyebrows rose as he noted who else was in the room. "You two. Well, nice to see you again."

He turned to Harry. "I need to speak to you alone."

Harry nodded. He took the contracts from the other two and sent them to see Balfour. "He'll show you around."

When the others disappeared, Malik sat down opposite at his desk. "How much do you know about Egyptian Magical politics?"

"I know the basics. Instead of a Ministry or Department of Magic, you have a Council of Egyptian Magic Users that runs the magical presence there. It is ruled over by a chairman, who is similar to our Minister of Magic, right? And he has a lot of power. I heard that a real charismatic guy got the seat recently."

Malik nodded grimly. "Yes. A real reactionary. He's apparently the descendant of the Pharaohs. He wants to bring back his families rule, and then expand. He plans to use your – England's, I mean - announcement about the Wizarding world as a step in a plan to create Wizard rule. I, wanted to help you, and then I opposed Wizard rule. This was before I found out about his plan. I got declared an outlaw on some trumped-up charges. So I decided I'd come to the famous Hogwarts to see if the famous Harry Potter would give a poor foreigner a chance."

Harry was deeply disturbed by this news. He had just recently found out he was to head two organizations set out to end evil, and one shows up. He sighed. "Yes, I suppose that it would be best. What can you teach? We're a bit understaffed."

Malik was a little chagrined at his lack of abilities. All he knew was Ancient Runes. So what could he do? "All I've ever been really exceptional at is Ancient Runes. But I'm not certified."

Harry laughed. "Yuugi just signed a contract for that job." Malik looked downtrodden. "Wait a second before you get all upset, let me call him."

He scribbled out a note to Yuugi and folded it into a paper airplane. A quick charm and it was whizzing off to find the tri-colored hair and the man it was attached to.

About ten minutes later, Yuugi showed up at Harry's office. "You wanted to see me?"

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry to impose. Malik said that he would like to teach Ancient Runes, and you showed an interest in History of Magic. Would you be willing to teach that instead?"  
Yuugi's face lit up. "I would prefer it, actually."

Harry smiled, but the smile was tired. "Now I just have to tell Binns he has to stop teaching. That'll be fun. Well, go on and unpack then."

And the two went off to prepare for their new jobs.

A week before the start of term, Harry was meeting with his family. Most of them were family by all but law even before he married into them, but now the Weasley clan was here, and he was legally, as well as emotionally part of them.

It was a quite meeting, unlike many family gatherings. The Weasleys were a close knit family, so there were none of the greetings after years passed. There were no children under maybe fifteen years of age, so there was none of the noise children seemed so good a conjuring up, even muggle ones. Harry's own children were there as well. Officially, it was a party to celebrate the new lives three of them had in Hogwarts, but they all knew there was something more to it.

Harry stood up and spoke. "There is a new evil in the world. A new man attempting to bring wizard rule over muggles. He is not directly threatening us here in the United Kingdom yet, but we all knew how well that went with Grindelwald. And worse yet, he is making use of our announcement of the existence of our world to achieve his means.

"As some of you should know, the mission of the Order of the Phoenix was to banish the evils of the world. It is time that I do my duty as headmaster of Hogwarts and rebirth the Order. I ask for the help, both as my family, and as the family that has helped the order so many times in the past."

Now noises broke out. Most of the whispering voices were in support. One thing the Weasleys all shared was a deep sense of justice. But a few were against the idea. One in particular stood up. It was George, who had lost his twin brother at the battle at Hogwarts all those years ago. "Why? They're not hurting us. Why should this family have to deal with more deaths to help some people we don't even know, down in Africa no less?"

There was a murmur of agreement, especially among the members of the family who had no ties to the muggle world. Hermione stood then, and turned to where George was sitting. "George, did you ever study Muggle history?"

George shook his head. He wanted to laugh at her, but he knew his sister-in-law well enough to know that she always had a point. Always.

"There was a man named Hitler. He took over Germany through illegal means. He started to take over other countries that he claimed were part of Germany, even though he wasn't even supposed to have an army. The rest of Europe let him, and England was the head of those allowing it. They were called 'appeasers'. They said it didn't affect them, they wanted to keep out of another war. Hitler took over the continent and would have taken England too if America and Russia hadn't helped us. And it all could have stopped if anyone in England had stood up to him. To put a cap on _that_, what he did to the group of people he didn't like, the Jews, made it look like Voldemort wanted to have afternoon tea with muggles. Never ignore something because 'it doesn't affect us'. It always affects you."

Even the people of the room that had known that history were blown away. George looked particularly ashamed. Molly stood. "I think it's decided then. We're going to take part."

Harry smiled at his mother-in-law. "If you want out, leave the room now. We are going to start a meeting of the order now."

No one left. "Very well." A note turned into an airplane, and it was not long until the teachers of Hogwarts filed in the room.

Harry filled them in on the Order of the Phoenix. Some of them already knew of its existence, but several of them had joined the staff after the end of Dumbledore's time, and Minerva had not fulfilled her duty to continue the order, as no one wanted to admit that they would continue to need one after Voldemort.

Yuugi was surprised, as was Aldous. Yuugi had learned recently about Voldemort, and was shocked to learn that most of the wizarding world still refused to speak his name. The exceptions were in the Hogwarts staff, the old D.A. crew. Aldous, of course, knew about Voldemort, but the dark wizard was not in his memory. Ryou had already known some from his abilities.

Malik, however, was another story. He was only a little younger than Harry and the crew, and he had known that Voldemort had been defeated by someone outside of the Ministry of Magic. But to be in a room full of those people, and to realize that they were all about his age, not to mention that they all were connected by this school – even if it was the most famous and the best wizarding school in the world – and a _secret society_ that was connected to it... it was a real eye-opener.

Malik stood and told the room what he knew about Bassam, the knew Chairman of the Council. Most of it was very bad. The idea of rule of a Pharaoh as a Wizard over muggles sounded too close to the pure-blood obsession of the Death Eaters.

By the time the meeting was over, George was the only one of the group that still seemed uncomfortable. They left, and Molly gave Harry her word that she would talk to George.

Harry went up to his office and sat at his desk. Soon, the students would be coming in.

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No footnotes this time. If you want them back, tell me, and I may. If you don't, tell me too, cause I may otherwise.

Ech, some scenes in this chapter are nowhere near as good as they should be. I'm so sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

Well, I'm back. Sorry about the wait. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

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Harry sat at his desk an sighed. This was so stressful. Luckily, the students would be coming soon, and he had all his teachers. Sure, a couple had to double up, so he'd have to be on the lookout for new teachers, but he'd make do. And the foreign teachers were interesting. He liked the all. But one creeped him out. _'That Ryou kid..'_ Harry thought back to the interview with him.

_There was a knock on Harry's door, and it opened when he requested that whoever was there come in. In came the Minister's wife, Hannah, and a white-haired kid, apparently the one he had heard about. He offered a seat to the two, but Hannah had insisted that she had to get back to the pub, and besides, wouldn't it be better for Ryou to have his interview without an escort? So she left._

_Harry smiled at the boy. He did look vaguely Asian, but still retained that British look. "So, I understand that you are not a wizard, that right?"_

_Ryou nodded. "I've never even known that there were wizards until I walked into the Leaky Cauldron. I'm just an occultist."_

_"So you tell fortunes, is that right? Mrs. Longbottom seems to think that you're quite good."_

_Ryou glared at him, a surprisingly spiteful look coming from the innocent-looking boy. "I do _not_ tell fortunes. I read the vibrations of the universe through occult teachings. This allows me to see something of the future, but not much. But saying that I 'tell fortunes' is a deep insult to my craft, so please avoid doing so in the future."_

_Harry was blown away. So he had more sides of his personality than he did at first glance. Then again, so do most people. "I apologize. Now, would you mind doing a reading for me?"_

_Ryou nodded. "Sure." He pulled out a deck of cards, handling them reverently. He spread out the silk they were wrapped in, and pulled a card out. "The magician. That represents you." He put the card down then shuffled and cut the deck, then dealt the cards._

_"You have overcome great trials – but we already know that. They took much of your strength, but you have begun to regain it. Which is good, it looks like you're going to need it. I see a great evil rearing it's head. You can defeat it, but not on your own. There's someone, or some group of people from your past. They will help you, if you ask. With them you have a chance of winning. But still, it looks dangerous._

_"I also see something else. A new discovery, one that peaks your curiosity. It could either help you or harm you, like any weapon. It gets fuzzy at that point. You seem to have already had some experience with it, though..."_

_Ryou looked up, the only time that he had looked Harry in the eyes besides when he was glaring. His eyes were haunting, and gave off the look of having seen something forbidden. Not bad, exactly, just forbidden. "That's all."_

_Harry sank back into his chair, folding his hands together. The reading was surprisingly precise, and it scared him. It was certainly different from his other experiences with divination, not counting the prophecies. If he had not heard this, he would have happily continued to believe that they were the only real forms of divination. But he had to believe this boy._

_Harry sat up again. "Alright. You're hired. Here's your contract." He placed the standard contract in front of the boy, whose eyes had drifted back to the floor. He signed it, still not looking Harry in the eye. Harry had sent another of his notes to Yuugi to show him to his room. "I'm having another newcomer I think you'll like show you to your room in the north tower."_

_Indeed, Yuugi came, and Ryou's eyes lit up._

_Harry stood. "Ryou, this is..."_

_Ryou interrupted him. "Yuugi Mutou!"_

_Harry was puzzled. "You know each other?"_

_Yuugi embraced the young man. "Ryou Bakura, I haven't seen you in years!" He turned to Harry. "Ryou was one of my best friends in high school, back in Japan. Good old Domino, right, __Ryou?"_

_Ryou nodded. "Yep. Yuugi-kun, genki desu ka."_

_Yuugi smiled. "Un."_

_Their voices faded as they left together, jabbering in Japanese._

That experience had been one of the most creepy he had ever had. Of course, it still didn't come close to that night in the Department of Mysteries... But he shouldn't go there. He had only a few days left until the students got here.

-

Indeed, that day came all too soon. Harry had been scrambling all day, along with the other teachers, to get the school ready. The House-elves had also been working overtime, preparing the great feast. Exhausted, Harry was relieved when he heard the sounds of the Hogwarts Express coming into Hogsmead.

When the students came filing into the room, they all looked at the staff table in surprise. They had heard the rumors of teacher changes this year, but the staff was almost all new. And two of the new teachers looked foreign!

Ginny brought in the first years, all scared and most nervous about which house they would be in. She placed the old stool with the sorting hat on it down and stepped back. As per usual, the hat sprang up and began to sing.

To Harry's surprise, the hat didn't sing, as it usually did, about how the houses should put aside their differences and work together. It didn't sing about the houses at all. It instead talked about international unity and the wizarding world. It didn't like how England was ignoring the international wizarding community in it's upcoming announcement, it seemed. Harry decided to have a talk with the hat about making political statements, especially against the position of the school, later.

When the students were sorted, Harry stood. "I'm sure some of you have noticed that the majority of the staff has changed this year. And I'm sure even those of you that didn't are now wondering about it. I will tell you about it. But, first, let's eat!"

He clapped his hands, and the food appeared on the tables. Harry sat and joined the students and other teachers in eating.

It had been years since Harry had enjoyed a Hogwarts feast, and he now realized just how much he had missed it. Those that had come to Hogwarts were enjoying it just as much, obviously their thoughts were much the same as Harry's. Malik made some comments about how the food here was so different than Egyptian food. It was a moot point, however, because the house-elves had made Egyptian and Japanese foods for the foreigners, and the other teachers seemed to enjoy them too. From what Harry could see of the students, they gobbled them down as well.

When the consumption of food had come to a near standstill, the plates magically cleaned themselves. Of course, this was actually all the house-elves doing, and they were now carrying the student's bags up to their rooms. Amazing creatures, house-elves.

Harry stood and spread his arms. This caused quite the murmur. The students were all wondering about the changes, and they didn't yet have the respect for Harry that students in Harry's days at Hogwarts had had for Dumbledore.

"Well, now that we're all fed, I'm sure that you want to know about the changes here this year. I, as I'm sure you have guessed, am your new Headmaster. My name is Harry Potter."

That caused quite a stir among the pupils. All of those of wizarding birth knew of Harry Potter, as did most of the muggle-borns. But he had disappeared into obscurity long before most of them were born, so they hadn't realized who he was. Harry did notice, however, a particular group of Gryffindor seventh years who did not look surprised at all. His daughter sat in the middle of them, and Harry recognized most of them as friends of hers. Ginny did look at her disapprovingly, however, when she noticed Lily sitting in a guy's lap.

Harry continued. "My wife, Ginny, will be taking over the post of Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. If you are at all worried about her qualifications, she fought Voldemort's army here in her sixth year."

There was a general outbreak of noise at that point. Fought Voldemort's army? In her sixth year? It was an amazing feat. Harry raised his hand, and eventually he got the quiet he asked for.

"One of my best friends from my time here, Hermione Granger, will be taking over the post of Charms teacher and Head of Gryffindor house."

Ginny and Hermione had decided among themselves that Hermione was to be the head of house. Harry had had next to no choice in the matter.

"Another of my good friends, Luna Lovegood, will be taking over as the Herbology and the Potions masters, as well as being the head of Ravenclaw. She is one of two of our teachers to be teaching two courses.

"Aldous Sterling will be teaching Muggle Studies, and will be the Head of Hufflepuff."

Aldous had agreed to be head of Hufflepuff, even though he had been a Ravenclaw himself. All he had to say was that it was 'better than Slytherin'.

"And that leaves out foreign teachers. This is Malik Ishtar. I met him in Egypt, were he served as a auror. He has agreed to join us as Ancient Runes teacher, as well as Head of Slytherin."

That announcement caused quite a commotion among Slytherin. Not one of them was happy that they got a foreigner as their head of house. Harry spoke up.

"Sorry, Slytherin, I know that it is unusual, but you may have noticed that we have staffing shortages this year.

"Ryou Bakura has agreed to join us as Divination teacher. He is very skilled, I hope that you respect him.

"Finally, Yuugi Mutou is going to be replacing Professor Binns as History of Magic Professor, and he is also going to teach a new class, required for all students, Ancient Magic. Please hold all questions about his class _for_ his class, please.

"As you can see, Professor Mutou is Japanese, while Professor Bakura is half-Japanese."

The muttering throughout the great hall had now gotten to a roar. He waited for it to die out, as it eventually did.

"Just a reminder for older students, and a message to new students: The forest on the edge of the school grounds is _strictly_ forbidden. And for good reason. Also, the list of objects forbidden on school grounds can be found in the caretaker's office.

"Now, I think that we are all tired and ready for a good sleep. If prefects will please escort first years to the common rooms, I believe we can start classes in the morning."

The dull roar picked up again as the students filed out of the rooms. Harry and Ginny headed to Harry's office.

They were just about to enter Harry's bedroom, which was behind his office, when there was a knock on the door. Ginny went into the room, and Harry opened the door.

"Hi, dad."

Lily was standing there. Harry opened the door the rest of the way.

"How can I help you, honey?"

Lily shrugged. "I wanted to congratulate you on all that. You were really good."

Harry smiled. "Thank you, honey. Now, shouldn't you be off to bed?"

Lilly hugged her father. "Okay. Goodnight. And don't expect this to be a regular thing!" With that, she was out the door.

-

The day that Neville was planning to give his speech to the Muggle world was there. The speech was to be given that evening, so that the prime-time news shows could broadcast it live. Before that, however, there was a meeting for all those involved in the inner workings of the wizard government. Harry showed up, with Aldous there as an expert witness. Before heading into the meeting room, Harry stopped by his old office. Ron would be there, and they would breakfast before they walked up together.

Harry's predictions were correct. Ron was there. Harry did have a bit of an advantage, though, as Harry and Ron had agreed to meet before the meeting in advance. Ron looked up when Harry walked into the head auror's office. "Hello, Harry. And your name is... Albert, right?"

"Aldous. But it's fine, we only met the one time, Ron."

They went to the cafeteria in the Ministry building. But it was a much nicer cafeteria than the ones in most government buildings, even. House-elves were much to thank for that. Harry, Ron, and Aldous got all the food they wanted and sat down. It wasn't even all that expensive.

When they had sat, conversation quickly turned toward the meeting they were having that morning. There was nothing that people outside the meeting couldn't know that they knew of, so it why it was being held behind closed doors was a mystery to the high-rollers and the teacher. But eventually, Ron wanted answers to the mystery that was sitting across the table from him.

"So, Aldous, why are you here anyway? The ministry muggle expert'll be there, so why did Harry bring you along?"

Aldous turned to Harry, not sure how much he should say. Harry smiled. "Aldous my be heading up a new project for the Minster connected to the announcement."

Ron looked puzzled. "I didn't hear about any new project."As the head auror, Ron knew about all the projects the ministry was currently running outside of the Department of Mysteries. Ron thought it was pretty obvious that Aldous was an unspeakable.

"It's being proposed to the minister at the meeting."

Not long after words, the trio had finished breakfast and gone up to the meeting room, where they were seated according to department. The meeting started as normal, and it appeared that it would continue that way. They had decided to repeal the great majority of laws that were directed at muggles, and had instituted a few new ones. It was illegal, now, to start a duel with a muggle. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was there as well, and he promised that no wizard as such will ever be coerced into doing work for the muggle government.

At a lull in the meeting, Harry spoke up. "If I may, I think there is something that we need to address."

Neville smiled, but the Prime Minister glared at him. "If it's not on the agenda, we can't get to it. I'm sorry, Mr. ..."

Most of the wizards in the room were now shooting angry looks at Harry, who had to admit some anger at the tone and disrespect that the Prime Minister had used. Neville intervened. "That is Harry Potter. He is one of the most respected member of our community, so it would probably be in your best interest to avoid treating him with disrespect, Prime Minster. Now, please continue, Harry."

The look in Harry's eyes thanked Neville. He had just adverted a probably destructive hitch in the attempt they were making at full peace between Wizard and Muggle. "One of the things that scares muggles most about magic is the fact that they know nothing about it. We know much more about them then they do about us, and we can't even attempt to dress like muggles without men in nightgowns walking about."

There was a mutter around the room. Harry waited, he had gotten used to muttering whenever he had spoke when he was 12 and everybody that he knew seemed to think he was the heir to Salazar Slytherin and was killing muggle-borns. Except this time, it wasn't a distrustful muttering, but everyone realizing that they had forgotten about that. Even the Prime Minister and the official muggle expert were baffled as to why they hadn't thought of it.

"There's a rather simple solution. We will offer, free of charge, weekend workshops for muggles that want to learn more about us. And our Ancient Magic teacher assures us that some muggles will be able to perform his magic.'

This time, the mutterings were a little more unfriendly. The wizards were all well aware that there was no Ancient Magic class at Hogwarts before this term. They were also more than a little skeptical that muggles learning magic would work, much less be a good idea. Harry just politely turned the floor to Aldous, who gave a breakdown of the workshop that the wizards would give.

At the end, all the wizards in the meeting agreed to give the workshops. They would be given in government buildings in the three regional capitals of the United Kingdom: London, Dublin, and Edinburgh.

Later, the Prime Minister became the first person to sign up for a workshop.

-

Students all filed into the classroom, nervous about their first class. Yuugi sat on his desk as the seventh year students sat in the desks of his classroom. They glanced nervously at the strange decorations. Half the class had been in here earlier in that day for History of Magic, and they were surprised by how much the room had changed.

The room was now lined with pictures of the Egyptian gods. The shelves, which had previously held books, now held games. But the scariest change was that of their teacher.

He had been dressed in black robes before, the same as all the teachers. But now, he was dressed in a white cloak and had a golden collar on. On his arms were golden ankhs, and on his head sat a ringlet of gold. This scared the students that had been in here earlier. The History of Magic teacher was an unimposing man who would rather read a book at home than be on anyone's bad side. But standing here now, he was a powerful magician who had control over one of the most powerful forces in history. Or prehistory, for that matter.

Most of the students had pulled out their wands. "Put those contraptions away." He had pointed to the wand of a Ravenclaw boy at the front of the room. The pupils were all surprised. "Aren't we going to be doing magic?" The Ravenclaw boy had spoken up.

Yuugi smiled down at him. Even as the Shadow Magician, he could not be completely cold. "Yes, we are. However," at this point he looked at the whole class, as cold as before, "when you are in this class, you are not here as wizards and witches. You are magicians and sorceresses."

The class slowly put away their wands, confused. "This type of magic is not about your blood. Your ability to manipulate white magic does mean that you can use some shadow magic. However, the shadows will respond naturally to some of you, while some of you will have to force the shadows to do your bidding with your white magic."

Some members of the class, mostly the Ravenclaws, scribbled what he was saying down. Yuugi ignored this. He did, notice, however, when Ryou came into his classroom.

"Shadow magic works in a completely different way then white magic. We summon the magic directly through our souls, and not through man made contraptions like wands. The magic exists in a realm where only shadows are. We draw it out to create illusions, or summon monsters, or to do what we need.

"Shadow magic is directly linked to games. Many of the games that are played as shadow games are more contests than games, but in almost every one there is a distinct winner and a distinct loser. But then again, any time there is a loser and a winner, then it can be a shadow game."

The scribbling had stopped. All the students were staring at their teacher now. Ryou's expression remained inscrutable. Yuugi smiled. "Are you ready to begin your exploration of shadow magic?"

When no one had said anything in protest. "Alright, then I think that it's time that I summon the shadow realm here."

The students became understandably excited. When the shadows around the room began to dance, however, several of the Hufflepuff girls began to cower together. The Ravenclaws took a while longer, but some of them seemed more curious than afraid all the way through.

The ones the shadows had chosen were immediately apparent. The shadows swirled around Yuugi more than anyone else, though they never touched them. The Ravenclaw boy who Yuugi had singled out earlier was also attractive to the shadows, although they did not give him the respect that they gave their master, Yuugi, and not nearly as many swarmed to him. Several others were surrounded, but none quite as much as the Ravenclaw boy. And then, in the back of the class, was Yuugi's old classmate.

Ryou had felt oddly at peace with the shadow realm. When Yuugi had closed his eyes and the eye of Horus had appeared on his forehead, there was a good part of him that felt like that should have seemed normal to him.

The shadows swirled around him nearly as much as they did Yuugi. Ryou had a sudden vision of a door, with a swirling pattern that left one with the feeling of falling, opening, and the Shadows pooring through. Then, he collapsed.

When his friend fell, Yuugi returned the shadows to their realm and rushed over to Ryou. "I need to take him to the hospital wing. I will be back soon. Don't do anything I wouldn't."

After assuring Madam Pomfery that Ryou only needed rest and to be looked after for a few hours, Yuugi hurried back to class.

"I apologize for that. I will check and see what happened to him later. In the meantime, did anyone have the shadows react to them in a particular way?"

A little while later, Yuugi had made a note of who had attracted the shadows and who had seemed to almost repel them. He assured them that next time they would start on shadow games before sending them on their way to their next class. Yuugi took off his jewelry and his white cloak and put them away in his office. When he returned, the classroom was ready for a History of Magic class with the first year Gryffindors. When the day was over, he was going to need to have a chat with his old friend.

-

Anzu flopped on her hotel room bed. She loved all the traveling she got to do in her job. She had succeded in her dream and went to New York to study dance. She quickly became considered one of the top dancers on Broadway. To now have a gig that allowed her to travel the world was amazing. She had convinced them to travel to Domino along with Okinawa and Tokyo during the winter.

Bored, Anzu flipped on the telly. The news on BBC1 came on, and she was about to change it, until she saw something that made her curious. The Prime minister was behind a podium, but he was only introducing a man dressed in robes. And he wasn't the only one. There was a group of people in robes, including the friend of Yuugi's that he had sent her a picture of. Aldous something. The reporter said that it was a formerly secret government building. The Prime Minister introduced the man in robes standing beside him as the Minister of... Magic? What in the world?

The man, a round-faced man in his 40s, stepped to the podium. He began to say the most fantastic things. He spoke of wizardry, witchcraft. Of a world hidden under the nose of most people, who he called 'muggles', explaining that it was the polite word for non-magical people. He then proceeded to pull out a stick and mutter something. Soon, There were boquets of flowers raining from the sky.

Another man, a dark-haired one, dressed in black robes, was introduced as the headmaster of the most popular school for magic in the world. He announced that there would be workshops available for muggles to learn about wizards. This was available from the government free of charge. He then introduced Aldous Sterling, who would run these workshops.

Anzu's jaw hit the floor. He had lived for years as a muggle. He was Yuugi's British friend! She wrote a letter to Yuugi to ask him what he knew about this. As she wrote, a sample of the concurrent announcement made by the American president and his Secretary of Magic was shown.

Weeks later, in Amsterdam, Anzu found a letter sealed with wax on her bedside table. In it was a note from Yuugi telling her to let him explain in person, in Scotland, and included were plane tickets and a ticket to the Edinburgh workshop.

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This is so wonderfully formatted here. But not after I give it to Fanfiction. Oh, well. I hope you liked it. Reviews will make me write faster!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuugiou or Harry Potter. I do, however, own my OCs and the particular events in this story. I do not own any characters, locations, or events I may reference from either series.

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Anzu sat quietly in a pub in Edinburgh. She looked for her shorter friend, but she was still in shock over the place. Scotland! Why there? Yuugi should have been in Egypt of Japan. Sure, he spoke English, but most people in Japan did at some level, and Yuugi had a talent for language.

She had called Jou soon after and found out that Yuugi had not come home with Sugoroku. The old man had said something about a tomb and Yuugi needing to get out of the country for his own protection, but he had refused to expound on the subject.

Anzu gazed out the window and tried to process all of this. She had been trying to process all of this for days, so she didn't really have any hope of it working now. But she could see the famous Edinburgh castle. She had the night off as well, so she had a chance to go see the Tattoo. She was actually quite excited, she had had an American friend at NYU that was quite the Anglophile, so she knew quite a lot about it. However, her thoughts were more closely related to the problem at hand.

"Hello, Anzu."

Anzu looked across the table to see that Yuugi had already sat down. His usual tricolored hair still put him apart from the crowd, but he looked different. It could be the fact that he wasn't wearing either a students or an architect's outfit, but a set of wizard's robes. He smiled. "I just came here from work, so I didn't have time to change into muggle clothes."

Anzu continued to stare at him in shock, and he realized that she hadn't realized how closely connected to the wizarding world he had become. Since the announcement, some wizards had walked around freely in robes, as Yuugi currently did, but he was still attracting some stares. The fact that he was also obviously Asian didn't help matters.

He motioned to where she had been staring before she had started staring at him, Edinburgh castle. "It's nice, isn't it? Reminds me of Hogwarts. I work there now."

It felt as if the entire pub had turned their eyes to him. He shrank in his seat and blushed. This caused Anzu to break out of her shocked state. "What? Can't we have a conversation without you listening in?" Her English was heavily accented like an Americans, so there was some muttering about 'loud, obnoxious Americans' as they turned away, but everybody still paid attention to Yuugi. Anzu, however, didn't seem to notice.

"So, how did you become mixed up in all of this. Have you always been a wizard, or what."

Yuugi stuttered, eying the rest of the pub. "Um... no. Listen, can we explain somewhere else? More private?"

Anzu smiled and nodded. Yuugi smiled back at her, slightly chagrined at having to do this. "You don't mind Wizard's quarters, do you?"

Not long later, the two found themselves in The Three Broomsticks. The town had been kept all-wizard, and some towns were all-muggle, as part of the agreement between the two. So Yuugi sipped a butterbeer, being a bit of a pushover when it came to alcohol, and Anzu tried a firewhiskey. She was allowed to come in as a guest of a wizard, not that the rule was strictly enforced. It was a more formal outline, Hogsmead and such towns were reserved for magical business.

Anzu was the first one to speak, reminding Yuugi of his promise to tell her the story. He explained what had happened in the tomb and the months after. She was, needless to say, amazed. But it was not long until she came up with a question that he had hoped to avoid answering.

"Are you a Wizard or a muggle?"

He sighed. "It's really not that simple in my case. I have no magic in my blood. That makes me a muggle. But I can – and sometimes do – use shadow magic to force white magic to do my bidding. It's a little complex, my students haven't even gotten that far. "

Anzu was in shock, though she was hiding it well. "Wow. I don't know what I can say."

Yuugi laughed. "It's even harder for Ryou. He doesn't know how he gets around the white magic. He just... does."

Anzu looked at him sharply. "Ryou? Ryou Bakura is involved in this too! Why didn't you say anything?"

Yuugi looked chagrined. "Sorry. I've just started to take it for granted. You know, I've been working with him for a while now.. How would you like to have lunch with him?"

The thought warmed Anzu, it had been even longer since she had seen her half-British friend than it had since she had seen Yuugi. Yuugi left her just long enough to go to the post office and send Ryou an owl. He left his cloak behind, which he had worn to fight off the chill of the English mid-September. It had a symbol on it that one of his Ravenclaw third year students had designed for him, an Ankh over an open book. She had made this charm for him, and it had since become a symbol of his that all the students recognized.

In walked a group of sixth and seventh year students, including Lily Potter, and her boyfriend, Neven Conol. He noticed the cloak, and noticed Anzu's muggle dress. "Are you here with Professor Mutou?"

Anzu almost choked on her firewhiskey when she heard the words 'Professor Mutou'. The idea of her short and, frankly, somewhat naive friend as a professor cracked her up. But she managed to calm herself. "Yes. I'm a friend of his and Ryou's from high school."

He and his friends boggled at her. They had known that Yuugi and Ryou had known each other and were raised as muggles, but they had never dreamed of meeting one of their muggle friends.

About when Lily and her friends had gotten to their seats, Yuugi walked in the door and announced that Ryou was on his way. The three friends had a nice long lunch after which Anzu walked away almost more confused than before she had her questions answered.

-

Lily sat next to her boyfriend, and their friends from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sat near them. There were two other couples and three singles. Their conversation started out as nothing more than chitchat, the sort of things that teens usually talk about – romance, sex, drugs may even have slipped into the discussion at one point or another. But when the white-haired professor walked in and sat with his friends, conversation turned quickly to him.

His classes were interesting, to say the least – he actually taught them to read the future. He was the best divination teacher any of them remembered, thought they had had to return to the basics, everyone had. The same was true in History of Magic.

A red-headed cousin of Lily's told the group about how he had correctly predicted the future of a classmate of his using tea-leaves. Others had had less luck, but Ryou was much more kind than previous divination teachers, so they didn't feel like they had no talent. The future, he explained, just came to some better than others.

It wasn't long before the subject of discussion became, once again, the muggle friend of the professors. One of their muggle born friends had said that she recognized her from a dance show from America that she had seen when it was in Paris over the summer, at the same time as her family. That turned the conversation from the professors or anything to do with them at all.

-

A few days after the lunch with Anzu, Ryou was cleaning up the papers some second years had left scattered around his classroom after a busy day of plotting Astrology charts. He put the last of them in a file he kept for this class so that the students could find their notes if they needed them and had forgotten it in his classroom. He did it for all his classes.

As he finished up, a short man with tricolor hair climbed up the hatch into his room. Ryou had just stood there as Yuugi closed the trapdoor that led to the outside world. Yuugi looked at him hard. "We need to talk."

Ryou sat Yuugi down and locked the door. He then went and sat next to Yuugi, offered to pour him a cup of coffee, which Yuugi declined.

"The first week of school, you came into my classroom. You remember?"

Ryou nodded. Of course he remembered.

"I summoned the shadows to test the students. A few of them were freaked out, some were interested, some attracted the shadows and others repelled them. But you are the only person who attracts the shadows so much that they passed out from the power. Only you."

Ryou shifted in his seat uncomfortably. This was a rather embarrassing subject, and he felt about how Harry looked when someone mentioned Dementors, chagrined.

Yuugi smiled comfortingly at his old friend. "It's not a bad thing. It just means that you might have a bit more potential for the shadows than anybody else I've tested."

Really, Yuugi knew, it meant that Ryou had much more potential than anyone else that he had tested. The priests were chosen by the amount of attraction they held for the shadows. Only the most powerful had been physically affected, much less actually fainted. But there was no reason to scare him.

Ryou looked at Yuugi. He was interested in gaining more magic. His was restricted to the occult and seeing the magical world. He could not do what all of those around him, including, now Yuugi, could.

"Do you really think so?" Ryou was still very timid.

"Yes, I do. Would you like to learn about the shadows?"

Ryou nodded. He wanted to be able to be like other people. He couldn't in looks, and he had been emotionally damaged, so he couldn't there either. At least he could have the same powers as the people around him this way.

Yuugi smiled. "We can do this one of two ways. One, I could teach you to control the shadows. Two, you could do it yourself."

Ryou stared at his short friend in disbelief. "What do you mean?"

Yuugi's face was impassive. "You can learn the same way I did. Just meet me in my office later."

-

Ryou stepped into Yuugi's office. It was filled with games top to bottom, except for the back wall, which had been lined with bookshelves and turned into a library, mostly filled with game books and history books. Ryou noticed a series on the game of go. He and Yuugi played from time to time in high school and had once or twice in the castle. He had overheard Yuugi trying to explain the game to Harry later, but the poor man had not done so well.

Yuugi sat beside his desk on a traditional Japanese-style cushion, with a traditional go board in front of him. He gestured Ryou to sit, and he did so, as Yuugi did, on his legs in the traditional style. This was going to be a traditional game.

"If you can defeat me, you will gain the knowledge of the shadows."

Yuugi was speaking in Japanese, but his words often fell into the realm of anachronism. He was obviously making this as traditional as possible, which Ryou appreciated. Ryou liked tradition.

They played, Ryou black, and Yuugi white. It was late at night when both finally agreed that the game was over. They counted up territory and found that black won – by a point and a half.

The shadows did not discriminate based on how close the win was. A win is a win. And so, that night, a white-haired divination professor slept on Yuugi Mutou's floor.

-

In a small, unimposing building in Edinburgh, Scotland, a crowd had gathered. Those lucky enough to learn more about the wizarding world in the first workshop were mostly government officials, along with a few celebrities. They were to teach others, who would teach others. Eventually, all citizens of the United Kingdom, and eventually the world, would know about the wizarding world. The United States and Australia were both offering similar workshops. But it was a bit harder in East Asia, where wizards were less organized. Certainly, part of the DIET was dedicated to wizards, but regulation was done more through the temples, where wizards and witches were trained. However, one person did show up that no-one seemed to know.

She was a young woman with brown hair and deep blue eyes, obviously of Asian descent. But when some reporters asked her who she was, she spoke with an American accent. She simply replied with her name before stepping inside. There were wild rumors as to who Anzu Mizaki might be, the most prevalent being a teacher for the workshop, a witch.

The only problem with this theory was that the teachers were already inside. Two of them had spoken during the television broadcast, but the third had been interesting. He had hair that was three different colors and stood in five distinct spikes. It had been decided that he did it with magic.

It was not long before it was discovered that Anzu was a Japanese-born dancer who had studied in New York. It was also not long before the press found a picture in her high-school yearbook, along with Yuugi Mutou's picture. The rumor mill was once again at full capacity.

-

The Prime Minister sat in a chair in the comfortable lecture hall. He sat next to the young woman that all the rumors had been about. Several Members of Parliament sat in the room too, and the Minister of Magic sat in the back, observing the first workshop.

Harry stepped up to the podium. "Hello. Welcome to the workshop. We have a busy schedule tonight, with three of our professors from Hogwarts. We will start with a crash course in Wizard studies, followed by a quick rundown or ancient wizard history. Then we will do a study in wizard-muggle relations, followed by medieval and early modern history. Then we will break for dinner. When we come back, we have the fight against Lord Voldemort, followed by how to teach this course, and more handouts then you'll be able to carry."

There was a polite laugh at the last statement, mostly coming from the celebrities in the room, rather than the politicians. The workshop commenced.

When Yuugi stepped onto the stage, he smiled shyly at his audience. "Hello. I am the History of Magic and Ancient Magic professor at Hogwarts. I'll be teaching you the history of the wizarding world. But first, I'd like to do something with you that I did with my students at the beginning of the year, if you don't mind."

No one complained, so Yuugi closed his eyes and summoned the shadows. There were a few cries of alarm, but mostly stunned fascination came from the audience. Yuugi opened his eyes and made a quick note about who seemed to attract the shadows. He noted, to his disappointment, that Anzu didn't.

"This is an example of the Ancient Magic that I teach at Hogwarts. I found it in a tomb in Egypt, where I worked as an archaeologist. You see, I'm a muggle by birth. I learned about this. But only a few people can learn it. Look around you. You notice that some of you seem to attract the shadows? You, I will teach how to do magic."

-

After the workshop, Yuugi kept his promise. Those that attracted the shadows had a full weekend workshop in two weeks to learn the ancient magic. In the meantime, he gave them some papers on Shadow Magic to study. "This will be incredibly rewarding for you, but it will be hard work. Wizards and witches perform their magic with their blood. We must make the shadows do our bidding with pure will. But, we sorcerers can force the white magic with shadows, even though it's not in our blood. So, I'd say it's worth it."

Yuugi watched his students walk away with both a dazed look and a new title: Sorcerer-in-training.

zZZz

Wow, I am so sorry about the month-long wait. I've been incredibly busy. But it's no excuse. I don't know how long it'll be before I post the next chapter either, I'm sorry. But, I do know that it will come, so be patient.

Ja, mata ne.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I think you should be able to tell what I do and don't own by now. But, for the record, I don't own Yuugiou or Harry Potter.

zZZz

Ryou opened his eyes and looked around. He was on the floor in Yuugi's office, but he had some cushions to lay on and a blanket on top of him. Yuugi had obviously taken care of his friend. But Ryou was worried about what he was feeling. It was as if there was more information stuffed in his brain then there had been when he fell asleep. It was an odd feeling, to say the least.

He walked over to the go board, where he saw the black and the white stones all laid out. Yuugi had probably thrown the game. Yes, he definitely had, the traces in the shadows said so.

It took Ryou a moment to think about how he had known that. He realized that he knew everything about the shadows. Except... there were a few patches that seemed blurry, for lack of a better word.

Ryou drifted out of Yuugi's office and up to his own. Yuugi wasn't here, he could tell, so they must be at that workshop for muggles. That meant that he didn't have any classes, which he was glad of. He drifted up to the north tower, saying hello to a few of the students that were up early to get a start on the day. The sky was still gray, but the great hall already had breakfast out, so Ryou assumed that it was early, but not too early – about seven o'clock.

Ryou climbed into his office and sat behind his desk. He racked his new knowledge, but couldn't come up with any reason that he could see the wizarding establishments with no magic. The only answer he could come up with was that he had some other type of magic – neither shadows nor white. There were other types, but none of them had ever been prominent, and most had died out by now.

His ability to make predictions was a clue. There were a couple of magics that could do that, but not many. And most involved worship of certain gods. Ever since Amane's death, Ryou didn't believe in gods, though his interest in the occult had grown.

The thought that he now had three thousand years of magical knowledge at his fingertips and yet could not explain himself upset him greatly. But with his new powers, he had certain things to take care of first. So he pulled his coin purse out of a drawer and tied it under his robes before throwing some powder in the fire, which turned an emerald green color.

Ryou stepped into and said "Ollivander's" clearly, and the world started to spin around him. When it stopped, Ryou stepped into the famed wand shop.

The old man stared at the white haired man who stepped out of his fire impassively. It was quite normal for wizards to need new wands if accidents broke them. And over time, some wizards find that their wands don't work as well as they once did. What was unusual was that Ollivander didn't remember the man. But it was possible that he had been poorer earlier in life, and was just now getting a better wand.

"Do you need a new wand?" Ryou nodded his head. "Please."

"Can you give me some information on your old wand?"

Ryou blushed, embarrassed. "I – this is my first."

This befuddled Ollivander. To be in his twenties and be getting his first wand? It sounded like a ploy to Ollivander. But his job was to give him a wand, not to pry. So he simply pulled out the old tape measure.

"What's your name? I need to put it in the books."

Cue another blush. "Ry-, Ryou. Ryou Bakura."

Then another strange look by the old man.　"Don't you teach at Hogwarts?"

Ryou nodded. "I'm the divination teacher. I was raised as a muggle."

"But why are you getting your first wand now?"

"Well... Do you know about shadow magic?"

When Ollivander signed his ignorance on the subject – though it sounded like dark magic to him – Ryou began his story. He started with how he was trapped in London without a home, and he came to a small pub known as The Leaky Cauldron.

Ryou stepped out of his fireplace again, this time with a wand in his hand. It was yew, seventeen inches, and apparently quite springy. He loved it.

-

Harry stood from his comfortable chair in a small meeting room in the building the workshop had been held. Harry, Yuugi, Aldous, and Neville had sat down to discuss the workshop, how it had gone and such. Neville had just disapperated to the ministry, and Aldous had just left from the emerald flames that were in the fireplace. Harry was going to go next.

"Wait."

Harry turned to face the History of Magic teacher. He had been rather quiet during the meeting, though Neville had chewed him out a bit for freaking out the muggles. At the time, Harry thought that Yuugi had just been chagrined, though he had said that it was necessary to teach the ancient magic, as was his duty. Now he began to wonder if there was another reason for the younger one's silence.

"What is it?"

Yuugi paused before speaking. Even then, Harry wasn't sure that he was answering his question. "When in the presence of the shadows, some attract them, and some repel them. Those that attract them have an easier time with Shadow Magic, and those that repel them can only use it if they have white magic to force the shadows with, you have seen this."

Harry remained silent. Yuugi's mood mystified him. He was usually pretty cheerful, if a little naive seeming. But now, he seemed deadly serious, and Harry didn't like it. It didn't suit the short, tricolor haired form that was Hogwarts resident magician.

Yuugi turned to face him. "Ryou walked in on one of my classes the other day. He fainted from the shadows. _Fainted._ The shadows had a _physical reaction_ to him. That is so rare that only the strongest of magicians have had the ability. I can count on one hand the number of times that's happened in history.

"So I played him for knowledge, and he won. So I had to suffer a penalty. Something equal to the knowledge of the shadows. I'm not quite sure what it is, but... I had a dream last night. I think that the gods of Egypt will have to judge me. Over the next year, I must prepare."

Harry was wide-eyed. He knew almost nothing about the Egyptian gods. He would have to ask Hermione what she knew from her old Ancient Runes classes. But he was pretty sure that their judgment ritual was pretty bad. And the punishment if you failed was as bad as could be, though he couldn't remember what it was. The look on Yuugi's face told him he was correct. It was a look of absolute dread.

Yuugi closed his eyes, and immediately regretted it. He saw, again, the face of the Anubis as it took him to the large set of scales where his existence could end. He saw Ammut, hungrily watching, ready to eat his soul should his heart not weigh the same amount as the feather that the winged goddess Ma'at was handing Osiris, the god of the dead, eternally scarred all over his body from where his brother had chopped him into many different pieces before dumping him into the Nile, dead. And there was Thoth, the Ibis-headed god of writing, waiting to record his name and result.

None of them cared about Yuugi. The indifference with which the god's watched him scared him. The only one who cared one way or the other was Ammut, who wanted to gobble him up. That frightened Yuugi to no extent.

He opened his eyes and took a breath, steadying himself. His job was more important. He had to prepare those that could help for the eventuality that – best not to think about what would happen if those scales tipped.

"Ryou has the power now. If I fail – gods be that it is not so – he can take over my mission, and my position as teacher of ancient magic."

Harry sat down. The idea of one of his friends dying a painful death had been in the back of his head since he had to restart the Order – which was long due for another meeting. If only they had more information... But that wasn't the point. This made him realize that it was possible that someone could die in the upcoming war. He felt himself having a reaction close to George's. He stared at Yuugi as the younger man stood, almost robotically. He walked over to a flower pot and threw more flu powder into the fireplace before saying "Hogwarts". Harry was left to decide what the history teacher was thinking. He seemed frightened, but he was holding it under the surface. This could not be good.

-

In the Ancient Runes classroom, Malik sat with a few exceptional students, the few that he had chosen to help him in his research. They were mostly sixth- and seventh-years who were, through years of training and self-study, pretty much fluent in the runes. Lily was one of them, since her aunt had been ceaselessly nagging her to take study over the summer, and she found that she quite enjoyed the runes. Neven was in there too, although for him it was more because his girlfriend had dragged him into it.

Their current project was Ancient Egyptian. Malik had found it in a temple when he had been working as an auror, and had recognized the magic in it immediately. None of the muggles who had found it knew it for what it was, though. So far, they had just figured out that it described a seal on magic.

It described several types of magic, including the offending magic of darkness, which sounded like it should be sealed, and white magic, which seemed to be their type of magic. It also described how certain cults had their own forms of magic. The followers of Anubis were described as being quite the necromancers, for example.

But the seal on the magic of darkness had had the unintentional side-effect of sealing off all but a few types of magic, their white magic being the most predominate of the ones that remained. Eventually, all the other types had died out.

They were trying to compile a list of all the types of magic and their different powers. Some of them were quite different. White magic covered the most arenas, but some, such as the soul, that shadow magic settled on, were barely touched.

The room had been silent for hours, not counting the sounds of pages of hand-copied hieroglyphs and the scratching of quills against parchment as the entire team took notes. Suddenly, Neven let go of Lily's hand and shot up. "Shadow magic!"

The entire room jumped and stared at him, before someone asked him where it was described. He pointed to a point on the paper. "I don't know why I didn't recognize it before. The magic of darkness is Shadow Magic. See, where it describes the darkness it calls?"

Malik had never seen any shadow magic before, so his curiosity was aroused. "Really? You're all learning the Magic of darkness?"

The students all signed their agreement, and the runes professor requested a demonstration. Neven agreed and closed his eyes.

He looked inside himself for the core of the shadows. It appeared to be door that was floating by itself in darkness. It was not shadows, they required a source of light. This was his shadow core, where the darkness was trapped as well. Neven could allow the darkness to come out from here.

Neven reached for the doorknob. It felt like ice in his hand, and a shudder ran through his body. Somewhere inside, there was something that didn't like what was behind that door and knew it. What scared him even more, though, was the part of him that yearned for the shadows. Neven took a deep breath before turning the knob and opening the door.

Shadows shot out of the door and filled Neven's shadow core. He opened his eyes, and took in the scene around him. The cold mist that were the shadows had filled the room, and, as usual, licked his ankles, as a large amount gathered around him. The fear that was in some student's eyes would never go away around the shadows. Neven felt especially bad for those who were scared of the shadows and yet attracted them.

Malik was also attracting a lot of the shadows. He felt, however, that they were warm, rather than cold, like his students had, invariably, described to him. They felt like a comforting illusion that, even though you know it for what it is, you believe in rather than give in to the cold, hard truth. He liked them.

When it became apparent that the professor was satisfied with this demonstration, and now wanted answers, Neven closed his eyes and his door to the shadows.

"That was interesting," mused Malik. "I'll have to ask Professor Mutou about this. He has knowledge about that time, correct?"

As Neven began to rant about the professor and his knowledge, Malik listened intently and took everything in. Lily, however, just made a mental note to tell her father and Professor Mutou of this, and of how much Malik attracted the shadows.

-

Lieutenant Colonel Shakeel Hafeez was in shock. He had gained his rank in the offices of peaceful Egypt. Now, there were explosions and gunfire going on all around them, not to mention the shouts and yells of men. And he was expected to give commands! Just because he had taken a few theoretical strategy classes. He may have received the best marks, but that knowledge did not seem to translate to the battlefield very well.

A woman came up to him. She was one of the officers that ran the communications station. She held out a note for him to read, presumably either a message from the enemy or commands from the main base. It turned out to be the latter. The message, which was, as all military messages, brief and to the point, read simply: CAIRO TAKEN. FALL BACK.

She looked at him, and he stared at the message. He may not have been happy being out here, but he was not going to allow that to happen. He called his troops around him.

There were not many left. There was a since of fear and adrenaline among them all, as explosion came around the trenches that they had dug to help defend themselves. There was also, however a since of camaraderie and purpose that overpowered the fear and excitement that came from war. These were brothers-in-arms, in the most perfect sense.

The fear was still there, however. An explosion rocked them, and it shook several of the soldiers more than simply physically. Shakeel knew that the message he had given them was going to shake them more. The only chance that he had of getting them follow his decision was to fall back on the brotherhood that killing and seeing others be killed gave them.

"Boys, I have some bad news for you. Cairo has been taken." There was a general murmuring of fear. If Cairo had been taken, the war was over. They had been defeated.

Shakeel knew this. "I know what you're thinking. But boys, we've become brothers. We refuse to live under the rule of the insurgents. We love Egypt for what it is. Allah has truly blessed me to have found a group of brothers that I have lived and fought with, and I thank him. Now, I wish to die with them, not as a second-class citizen, but as a free man. I want to take some of those damn insurgents out with me when I die. We have that chance now. I will take it, but if you don't want to, then you don't have to. Those of you that will shall certainly find themselves hailed among those like us as heroes. If you want to leave, do so. If you want to die a patriot's death, then stay.

That evening, most of the detachment snuck into the enemy camp. The watch noticed, and there was an immediate raising of alarms. Shakeel stood, and started firing his semi-automatic wildly, screaming. A few of the insurgents fell to his bullets before he saw a flash of green light and was no more.

-

Harry sat in his office, reading some of the notes on the secrets of the school. He wanted to find the limits to the room of requirement. But, it seemed that none of the previous headmasters had experimented with it. Still, he read on.

At the knock on his door, Harry looked up. Whoever he expected to walk in, it was not the aging woman with a stern look on her face that showed up to see the headmaster.

Minerva McGonagall had not been quiet on the Egypt front. She had been trying to find ways to communicate with the outside world, as a member of the Order. She had had sparse contacts, since she avoided the Council of Egyptian Magic Users due to Malik's warning. Now, she had lost contact.

She laid a small piece of parchment on Harry's desk silently. He calmly read it then set it down. "Who do we have that can replace Malik?"

McGonagall chose to reply with a different question. "So you plan on sending him? You know he's been declared an outlaw over there."

Harry nodded. "But he's the only person that can go to Egypt and have a framework to fall back on. He'll have friends that he can call upon, I'll bet you anything. And we need someone there now desperately."

Harry sighed as his old teacher left his office. He decided to send Ron an owl and have the order meet before sending Malik off to his homeland. But there needed to be an offshoot of the order there. The Order of the Phoenix was coming to Egypt, which was even more perfect when you realized that the phoenix was originally Egyptian. Harry smiled.

Now, he had to hope that Malik could get some trustworthy people together to fight the menace there. The first regime of the type that Voldemort threatened was here. Now, the order had to fight Bassam of the council. It would not be a fun war. Malik would have to find out soon.

This did not make Harry happy.

zZZz

First off, a BIG kudos to my betas, AmaneManiac and EmeraldxSapphire. They are both really amazing people for doing this for me. Send them much love!

This chapter is one of my favourites so far. We're starting to get into the meat of the story now.

Thank you to all of you that reviewed. I'll see you all next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

Wow, it's been almost a year. I'm so sorry it took so long. This story is mainly a side project, and I was busy this last. I doubt next year will be any better, since I'm starting college. However, I'll try to get a chapter or two posted over the summers, and maybe I can come up with something throughout the year. We'll just have to see.

I'm sorry this is rather short. I figured that it would be better to get something out there, and I lost all my notes and the part of the chapter that I had written to some computer trouble. Malik's stay in Egypt, for example, was supposed to be much longer. Now, I will leave you to enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in here you recognize, unless it's an OC that I've already introduced.

---

Malik Ishtar stepped from the plane at the Cairo airport. His flight, while long, had been made much more comfortable by the first class ticket the Order had been able to get him.

Now, however, he felt like everybody was staring at him. He was an illegal in this country, and aurors filled the airport. He knew he had to step lightly. So, when he saw an old friend of his from his days as an auror, he walked up to him.

Hafiz was like Malik, he believed in equality in the eyes of the law. However, unlike Malik, Hafiz was smart enough to keep his head down. Now, Hafiz was Malik's only chance to get into the country.

Hafiz turned around as he heard a voice in his ear. "Would you turn in an old friend?" However, he found behind him exactly what he had found in front of him: nothing. Hafiz remained undaunted, however, and a wave of his wand dispelled the disillusionment charm, revealing Malik.

"What the hell are you doing here? Are you an idiot?"

Malik winced against the harsh whisper. "Look, I have to, okay. If you have officially not seen me, it would make life a lot easier. Just come by my families house tonight, okay? Tell them that you're looking for me."

Hafiz didn't say anything. He continued not saying anything as the alert that told him a magic user was walking through his station and out to freedom.

* * *

Later that evening, Hafiz stood in the desert, near the valley of the kings. He stood facing a stone wall, making a decision. Setting a firm look on his face, he knocked on the stone wall.

Hafiz appeared unsurprised when a chunk of stone slid back to reveal a tall, slender Egyptian witch wearing a gold necklace and no other adornment against her plain clothes. "Hello, Ishizu."

"Hello, Hafiz. Please come inside."

He entered. The inside did not look like one would expect. It appeared to be similar to the ancient homes, if more ornate than usual. Hafiz expected this, he had been here several times before. However, he did not expect to see his old friend with several aurors, council members, influential muggles, and other high rollers of Egypt. Ishizu closed the door. "Malik said there would be one more. I'm glad that it's you."

Hafiz looked at the Egyptian woman. Malik and he had been friends since before auror training, and he had spent much of his teen life in this room. He and Malik's older sister had even had a relationship at one point, and neither had truly gotten over the other.

However, she simply glided – he had noticed that, she never _walked_, she always _glided_ – to the group, sitting down with the rest of them. Hafiz also took a seat, and Malik Ishtar stood in front.

"Well, it looks as though we're all here. Thank you for coming. As you may know, I was recently kicked out of Egypt. I moved to Britain, where I have a job working for Harry Potter, headmaster of Hogwarts, and defeater of Voldemort. I have come here from him."

Mutterings spread about the room at this point. Malik gulped, white in the face, and wiped his sweaty palms on his robes. "I am here to bring the Order of the Phoenix to Egypt. I believe that all of you would like to see Bassam defeated. Is there anyone here who would not do that, even on face of torture and death?"

None spoke. The room was deathly silence for a few minutes, then he heard a councilman speak. "How will I be able to fight against such a powerful chair while on the council?"

Malik looked at the man. "We would need spies. I think you would do wonderfully. Everyone here would have to continue just like you are now. We can't have Bassam getting suspicious."

That night, all the people in the room became the founding members of The Order of the Egyptian Phoenix. They left, with the Ishtar home now under the Fidelius charm. Soon, the Boy Who Lived would speak with them.

---

Yuugi sat behind his desk. He was reading a document about magical history in the far east, especially about it's place in the Chinese Han dynasty. He had just finished a paragraph about the use of magic in Taoism when he heard his door open. Looking up, he saw Malik standing there.

Ever since Malik had returned from Egypt, he had been looking to corner Yuugi about the document he had found. Yuugi, however, had not seemed to want to comply, and was always with someone else. Malik had also been busy with Order business, helping the Egyptian order.

Yuugi, on the other hand, sensed that Malik wanted to talk to him about something unpleasant. He had been trying to avoid him, but now the jig was up. He looked at him, not about to give anything away. "Can I help you, Malik?"

Malik sat down in front of the the short professor and pulled out a file. He then handed Yuugi a copy of the Hieroglyphs found on the tablet. "What do you make of that?"

Yuugi raised his eyebrows at the teacher of ancient runes, but he looked down at the tablet. Immediately, his egyptologist's eye was attracted to the most important parts of the document. "It appears to be a description of types of magic common in ancient Egypt. I would estimate that it was from approximately the time of Ramses II. Why?"

"Did you read all of it?"

"No, should I?"

Malik nodded to the paper, and Yuugi started reading. He came across an interesting phrase. _The Magic of Darkness_ it read. It had already described white magic, both it's dark and light forms, as the second most important form of magic in Egypt. Intrigued, Yuugi pulled a magnifying glass out of his desk, where he kept his archaeological tools, and read closer.

Here is what he read:

_With out a doubt, the magic of darkness is the most important type of magic Egypt has. Unlike many types of magic, it is not granted by the gods, and does not hinge on their worship. Unlike White Magic, it is stored in the souls of the living, rather than their blood. Priests must have a soul of dark secrets _(Yuugi assumed that this meant that they must be able to use shadow magic, something in his head told him he was right) _to be trained. It is these priests who have control of the darkness, and it is they and their illusions that control the world._

_The magic of the darkness stems from a realm of shadowy night. The shadows of darkness may be called to earth by a priest or sorcerer. The sorcerer may then shape the shadows to their will, creating monsters, illusions, and binding the souls of people to the games they play._

The article went on to identify the current priests and assure the reader of their immortality. However, the mention of a Pharaoh as the master of games, the master of royal tombs as a master of illusion, and a priest-turned-enemy of the Pharaoh as being master of many monsters disturbed him. He was a master of games, this much was true. But that meant that someone could be a master of illusion, and another could be a master of monsters. It was important that he find these people.

"Where did you find these hieroglyphs?"

"In a tomb."

"Which?"

Malik paused. He didn't want to share this information. "I don't remember."

"You're lying."

"Yes."

Yuugi stared at the Egyptian man. Malik stared back. Then, Malik noticed that something was changing about the short man's appearance. Slowly, Yuugi's forehead began to glow, and the room became steadily darker. Malik, far from being scared, felt more and more secure. Yuugi's voice spoke, a little deeper and much more confident than before. "Then I challenge you to a game."

Malik gasped. He knew that the professor with tri-colored hair was a master of games, and that a game with him could turn deadly. However, there didn't seem to be any way to refuse. "What game?"

Yuugi smiled. "A duel."

---

I would like to say a couple things. I will not be delving into Ishizu's relationship with Hafiz, I'm not even sure that he'll be showing up again. Then again, he just might. Second, I didn't send this to my beta's because it's been so long. However, if anyone would like to, I would love to receive any friendly criticisms they might have.

With that, I just have to remind you to review!


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

Disclaimer: All rights belong to J.K. Rowling and Kazuki Takahashi.

Whispers had started to travel through the entire school. Two of the foreign teachers were going to duel! One used to be an auror, and the other knew shadow magic. It was probably one of the greatest spectacles sense Dumbledore fought you-know-who.

Harry Potter, who had seen that fight between his mentor and his worst enemy first hand, did not want to see it again, especially not between two of his teachers. This was the cause of his visit to the teacher's quarters.

Harry had a suite just off the headmaster's office, and he had always assumed that teachers lived in or next to their offices. However, he had found out soon after becoming headmaster that teachers had a tower of suites, so he headed there now.

He opened the door to the teacher's tower and found a spiral staircase. As he mounted it, he found a door on each landing, telling him which teacher it belonged to. Yuugi's suite was not too far up, and he knocked and entered.

Yuugi's suite was quite large. It was obvious that the castle changed the teacher's suites to fit the personality of the professors, as Yuugi's was simple but elegant. There was a bed on a raised area of the room, which also included a doorway with a silk curtain. The sheets on the bed were also silk, Harry noted appreciatively.

In another part of the suite was a study area, where it appeared Yuugi spent most of his time. The table was littered with essays that needed to be graded. Harry noticed the only other door appeared to lead to a bathroom, so he decided to check out the balcony.

Harry brushed passed the curtain and found himself on a medium- to large-sized balcony. There, on the edge, stood Yuugi. He faced the lake, and appeared to be looking in the middle of it, perhaps trying to catch a glimpse of the giant squid.

However, Yuugi was merely staring off into space. His duel with Malik was on his mind. He hadn't even realized that Harry was in his room, so he jumped when he heard the headmaster's voice in his ear.

"Why are you dueling Malik?"

Yuugi stared at Harry. "I'm sorry, it's complicated. All I can say is that it has to do with my mission."

Harry did not seem impressed. In fact, he now appeared a little worried. "Is there anything I can do to stop you from doing this?"

Yuugi shook his head. "Believe me, I've been trying to convince myself not to do this for hours. But it needs to be done."

Harry nodded. "What about Malik? Is there some way he could stop this."

"Only if he were to tell me the information I want. And he's not about to do that."

"Thank you then." Harry turned and left, shutting the muggle professor's door on his way out.

Harry continued to the fourth-highest suite. Malik's suite was there. It turned out that the top four suites were all for the heads of houses, and penthouse went to the head of the house that won the house cup the previous year, then the runner up, with the loser at the bottom. Slytherin had gotten very few points last year, so Malik's rooms were the fourth to to the top. Hermione's were second, and Luna had the penthouse, it seemed Ravenclaw had been doing very well since he had left, although he thought that had more to do with Hermione's departure than his own; after all, she was the one who answered questions in class and earned Gryffindor points, he had just lost them points and gotten into detention.

Whatever Harry had expected to find in Malik's room, it wasn't this. If he were to venture a guess, he'd probably say he expected to find something similar to Yuugi's room, if maybe a touch darker. However, what he found wasn't a touch darker, it was nearly pitch-black. The darkness was pushed away only by the torches found in sconces along the walls. Even then, it was only just possible to see enough to walk without running into anything. However, near where the torches were lit, hieroglyphs were visible. At this point, Harry wished, not for the first time, that he had paid more attention to Hermione's lectures during their youth. Now, however, he walked the long, narrow hall, being careful so as to not run into any furniture in the dim light. Only, there was none, at least not in the hall.

At the end of the hall, it expanded into a large room, roughly square-shaped. Here, Harry found most of Malik's possessions: books, papers, and the other bric-a-brac that a wizard accumulated living his daily life. A doorway set at a right angle from the hall led straight into another, larger room, this one more rectangular in dimensions. Here, Harry found some sparse furniture: a desk with a chair, a candle glowing brightly on it, showing neatly stacked scraps of parchment, a small table, with a book lying face down on it, a wand next to it, and finally a small bed, with a wizard with platinum blond hair lounging on it.

"Hello, headmaster. I didn't expect to see you here. Though maybe I should have, considering the rumor mill that is always in full swing around here. How can I help you, defeater of the dark lord?"

Annoyed as Harry was at that last comment, he swallowed his anger and sat in the spartan chair, turning it to face the Egyptian first. "Yuugi tells me that you refused to give him some information regarding his research."

"That is correct."

"Do you care to tell me why?"

"Not really. But, I shall anyway. The slab I found was in a temple to the god of the dead, Osiris, who was also the king of the gods. It describes the different styles of magic found in Egypt, one of the most powerful countries in the world at the time, and almost without a doubt the most magical. One of the descriptions it gives is of shadow magic, the 'magic of darkness'.

"Along with it, it describes white magic, which is the magic that you and I practice daily with these." Marik picked his wand up and waved it, sending a shower of green sparks all over the place. "It also describes several types of magic that different gods grant their followers. However, I have not finished reading it yet. While I do not doubt that he could read it more easily than I with his knowledge of Egypt, I worry.

"As an auror, my specialty was in the ancient magics that often haunted old tombs, disabling them when they became too dangerous and warning others, especially visiting wizards, about them. Your brothers-in-law can tell you about some of that, I'm sure. Your in-laws may not have been rich, but Molly and Arthur Weasley were known to the wizarding world as defiers of the dark arts. We kept a close eye on them when they were in Egypt.

"It was on one of those trips that I found that tablet. It had always been my intention to return and explore there more as a kind of an amateur archaeologist. Instead, however, I decided it would be fun to get thrown out of the country. But I know that there's more there, Harry. I think it's possible that there's another kind of magic there. I can't give it to Yuugi, I don't know what he would do."

Harry sat there for a few beats, staring into space (Malik's space at that, and it was really starting to creep him out), taking it all in. Then he stood. "I see. I will not tell Yuugi what happened. However, I recommend you do. He may be able to help you, remember that he was a muggle expert on ancient Egypt."

"I have modified the memories of more muggle 'experts' on ancient Egypt than I care to remember."

"Very well. Just don't cause or receive any permanent harm. And remember, you never know who might be helpful to you."

"'...and you never know who is an enemy. Use all, trust none.' I went through Auror training too."

Malik watched as the headmaster disappeared into the darkness. Now, he was more easy than ever. One thing was for sure though, he needed to win that duel.

* * *

Ryou watched as the last class before lunch disappeared down the trap door. Luckily, he had several hours before his next class. He had time to learn some magic himself as well as to get something to eat before he had to teach again, and then it was only two classes before he would have to watch the two professors duel each other. It was not something he looked forward too, but it was something he was felt obligated to do.

He decided to start with white magic today. He had just gotten the hang of getting his shadow magic to force the white magic through the wand, and he wanted to play with it more. He pulled his wand out of his sleeve and went into his office behind the classroom. There, he pulled out a book "beginning charms". He had read most of the theory behind levitation, and now he was going to try it out for real.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" _Swish, flick. _The book lifted into the air, following his wand movements. After a few moments he set it down. He was just starting to feel rather proud of himself – it was his first time, after all – when he heard some light clapping coming from the doorway.

Rather more red then his usual pale complexion, he looked up to find Luna Lovegood standing there. "Very good. Was that your first time?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah." The other teachers knew of his inability to preform most magic, but it had been decided that it was best if the students didn't know, since some of them may have resented being taught by a man who was, basically, a muggle.

"That's excellent. I'm sure that if you had been in Hogwarts, you would have been a Ravenclaw."

Ryou took that as the compliment that it was meant to be. "If I could, I'd like to be able to do what all of you can do. Then maybe I'll feel like less of a freak."

Luna smiled. When Luna Lovegood smiled, it wasn't like when other people smiled. She seemed to smile like a child, who doesn't need to put any effort behind it. It was full of real joy.

Of course, it was also a bit spacey, but then, so was everything about Luna Lovegood. If half the stories he had heard about her youth were true, she was more stable now then she had ever been.

The same was true of Ryou. He had spent so much of his childhood in the occult – divination, symbolism, and many other subject that a child or teen had no business studying – that he had never had time for a real childhood. Yuugi and his small circle of friends had been the closest things he had to normal friends, and Yuugi had only fed his studies when it came to ancient Egypt.

One summer, in high school, they had spent the entire summer working complex mathematical constructs that the Egyptians had claimed held sacred power. The teachers the next year had been surprised; Yuugi still paid as little attention as ever, and Ryou now paid none, however, the two made high points on exams.

His study of alchemy was something else that Yuugi's friendship had spurred. Yuugi had caught him reading a book on it, and had asked him about it. He seemed to lose interest when Ryou described the powers of the Greek alchemists. However, his ears had almost visibly perked up when he had heard that the Egyptians had been suspected to being much closer to finding many of the alchemist's dreams. They had learned a lot then. If only they had taken chemistry before, not after, that.

Ryou smiled back at Luna. His was a little bit more normal, a little bit more sadness was hidden behind it. It was the smile of someone who realized that he was considered a freak.

"I'd be very happy to teach you. It's not hard, especially at your level."

"That would be much appreciated, Luna. How could I ever repay you?"

"There's no need. The act of doing is a reward in itself."

They ordered lunch up from the kitchens. A small house-elf delivered it. Strange creatures, Ryou thought. Most of the wizards and witches he met seemed completely unfazed by them. He agreed with Hermione, it seemed so awful that these creatures liked serving the humans. It rather reminded him of a scene from one of the books that Yuugi had gotten him to read, or rather, Yuugi's friend Seto had. It was not Ryou's normal style – it was a comedy/science-fiction. However, he liked it, and read the whole series.

The scene he was thinking of was out of the third book in the series. At least, he thought it was the third book. Was it? In any case, at this point, a strange creature, a descendant of cattle, came up to the table and offered itself to them for food. It explained that after they ordered it, it would go to the back room and shoot itself in the head – 'painless, that's the point' – and then a chef would cut it up and serve it. Of course, the earthling protagonist was completely disgusted, but everyone else at the table seemed delighted to order from the soon-to-be-dead creature.

The reality was a little better than that of course. A little, but not much. While now there was a small community of free elves, who worked for wages and wore clothing, mostly inspired by Harry and Hermione's elf friend Dobby, who had passed on during the great war, the majority of the elves shunned them and became belligerent when offered freedom or wages.

As they ate, Luna described many of the theories of magic. She was astounded, as was he, by his knowledge, his occult studies often being correct. His experience in numerology put him ahead of the pack especially in arithmancy – "O.W.L. level already, at least," Luna commented – and his knowledge of ancient runes was near perfect (he had spent many hours studying magical secrets that required him to know many ancient languages). Much of the theory behind the wandwork was already there.

The time came for her to go to her next real class, down in the greenhouses. "A couple more sessions and you should be up to speed with charms and defense against the dark arts. Then you need to round out your education a bit with herbology and potions, those should be a bit harder, and transfiguration. You'll have to get Hermione's help with that, I'm horrible at it. I can barely transfigure a box turtle into a box."

She laughed at her own joke, and he tentatively joined in. Turn a turtle into a box? He didn't care if the turtle was called a 'box' turtle, that sounded hard. He really would need some help on that one.

Luna turned and started out the door. Just as she was about to close it, Ryou let out an 'oh!'.

She turned. "What is it, Ryou?"

"Here, I'd like for you to have this." He held out what appeared to be a small plant, green, with a purple flower on top. On closer inspection, it was a small creature, it appeared to be rather calm, friendly even. She took it.

"What is it?"

"I... I'm not quite sure. It's from the shadows." She looked surprised. This little thing was from shadow magic? "It's quite benign. It gets all the energy it needs from the sun, so there's no need to feed it, and it will help with the plants."

"Why, thank you so much. It's great. I will treasure it dearly." She looked at him one last time, and then she left. Over her shoulder, the little creature waved.

Ryou sat on his desk for a second, and then he heard voices. His next class was starting to file in. Quickly he summoned a house-elf to clean up the mess from lunch, hearing whispers about Professor Lovegood as he did so. He took a deep breath, and stepped into his classroom.

* * *

Yuugi stepped onto the quidditch pitch. He was surprised to see that the poles had been taken down. All that was left was a field of grass, perfect for the duel of two magics that was set to happen now. He saw the taller professor on the other side of the field, wand in hand. Yuugi did not have a wand.

Students and other teachers filled the stadium. Harry had met with them both just before the duel, checking to see if there was any way to stop it one last time. There was not. So he gave them a dire warning not to cause any permanent damage and not to harm anybody else in any way, on threat of immediate dismissal.

Yuugi stepped up to the middle of the field, as did Malik. Malik bowed, so Yuugi did like wise. Malik stood, raising his wand. A red beam of light shot out of it, heading directly towards Yuugi. Malik smirked, this duel was going to be over before it began.

Yuugi's arm flew up in a motion as if he was swatting the incoming beam out of the way. Malik's face fell as it seemed to do just that. "Shadow magic, huh?"

As if in answer, the entire stadium was suddenly enshrined in darkness. Shadows flowed everywhere, flitting in and out of students. A cheer went up in the stands, this is what they came here to see.

Malik grimaced. He could feel his white magic, it was weaker now, and Yuugi's shadow magic was stronger. Oh well, he could still win this duel.

Ropes flew out of Malik's wand, binding Yuugi's arms to his side. The little sorcorer's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't seem to have any other reaction. That was when he realized that there were several disks of shadows flying at him. Obviously, Yuugi didn't need his hands to attack. Malik let his spell fall, the ropes around Yuugi dissolving into nothingness, as he leaped over the disks of shadows.

Malik began sending curse after curse at his foe. Nothing seemed to hit. That was when he realized that Yuugi was parrying them with a sword made of shadows. That couldn't be good.

Yuugi flew at him, sword flashing. Malik met each of his strokes with a shield charm, but he still earned himself a scratch on his left side, where there had been a near miss.

There was no way that Yuugi had been that good at fencing before. No, this had to be another effect of the shadows.

Yuugi finally broke away, realizing that this line of attack was useless. He could keep going, hoping that Malik would make a mistake, but there were too many variables. No, he had to use a spell.

He closed his eyes, and cast about for a way to defeat Malik. He sensed another stunner coming at him and swatted it away. As he did so, the eye of Horus began to glow on his forehead. He opened his eyes and looked at Malik. "Behold the power of Amun-Ra, whose rays drain liquid and whose fury creates deserts!"

The light of the Sahara sun beat down on them. Malik was the only one targeted, but even the students in the stands were affected. Yuugi was not worried, however, they would at most be a little dehydrated. Malik appeared to be standing the heat, having lived in the Sahara most of his life. However, even he could not last long in this heat, especially with the heavy black Hogwarts robe.

Malik thought. He needed to cool down. There had to be something he could do! But nothing came to him. Then, he heard it, like a whisper in his ear. His wand shot forward, and he muttered a simple charm.

Yuugi had not been affected by the sunlight. The spell would only do harm to it's target, and have no affect at all on it's caster. However, he now stood there, and he was starting to feel truly hot. He cast around, looking for a reason that his spell would affect him. That's when he noticed Malik lowering his wand.

A quick check confirmed what Yuugi expected: his robes were on fire. Dammit. A quick call to the cooling powers of Horus's other eye and it should all be taken care of. He was bathed in silvery light, and started to shiver. It got very cold, and he couldn't feel most of it, but the fire should have cooled so much as to be out by now.

It wasn't. It continued to burn bright and warm. Yuugi's eyes widened, and Malik smirked. "You're the only one who can put this out, aren't you?"

Malik only nodded, choosing to conserve what water he had in the light of the desert sun that still beat down on him mercilessly. He could survive this for a day or so if Yuugi didn't attack him; Yuugi however, had to avoid being consumed by the flames. Yuugi nodded. "You win. Put them out."

The shadows over the stadium disappeared, as did the sunlight that Yuugi had called down. Both duelists were carted away to the hospital wing, the fire around Yuugi immediately extinguished. They were to be treated for burns and dehydration, and then resume teaching classes the following Monday.

* * *

Rose and her friends filed out of the stadium. The duel had been exhilerating, and Yuugi's spell had been exciting, but in a way it had been disappointing. They had gone expecting to see much more, a battle for the ages.

However, it hadn't been a total loss. There was something new for the rumor mill. Professor Lovegood had been seen coming out of Professor Bakura's office after lunch, and the two Professors had sat together during the match, occasionally chatting.

It wasn't long before the news had spread all over school. Rose, for one, could not wait for Potions the next day.

* * *

Hey, I'm back again, and this chapter was a bit longer. I'm sorry I've been gone so long, let's see how quickly I can get the next chapter up there. I rather enjoyed writing the lesson with Luna and Ryou. Will romance flourish? Even I don't know!

Also, anyone who can review and tell me the book and series that Ryou references will get mentioned in the authors note next section. The answer will also be there. Guess it yourself though, no googling! Maybe now I'll get more than one review for the chapter.

As always, your comments and creative criticism are appreciated. Thank you all very much, especially to you, Lolchen, for being the only person to leave a review.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: All rights belong to J.K. Rowling and Kazuki Takahashi

* * *

Harry lifted his fork to his mouth, taking the next bite of his salad. He presided over the great hall at dinner, and he could feel the eyes of his students on his table. It was only to be expected, after all, since tonight was the first time that Malik and Yuugi had joined them in weeks. The tension between the two was palpable, and it was starting to bother Harry. They had to work together, after all.

On Harry's other side, Ryou and Luna were talking. Harry would have thought that Ryou would help his shorter friend after the duel, but instead the half-Japanese man seemed to be spending more and more time with the potions and herbology professor. Harry had heard the rumors that the whole school seemed to be whispering: Ryou and Luna were seeing each other. He knew some of what was going on, he had seen the results of their study sessions together.

Ryou was very proud of those results. He was now up to fifth year level in Charms, and second in Transfiguration, easily his worst subject. His best subjects were Potions and Herbology, possibly because of who taught it. He felt a real connection to his spay colleague, they seemed to think the same way.

He and Luna were talking about her father's old rag, The Quibbler. It was still in production, and the old man was often quoted as saying that they could tear the press out of his cold dead hands. In fact, he had recently seen a large boon in business as he made deals with several muggle chains to include it with the tabloids. Now muggles could get their celebrity news about their fellow muggles and the witches and wizards that they now knew that they shared the world with.

The Daily Prophet had seen a boon in business too, though not as much as The Quibbler had. Muggles all over the UK were now visited by owls every morning, some of them claiming that the experience of receiving post via owl was worth at least as much as the newspaper itself.

They were not the only wizarding businesses that were profiting from the new customers. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had expanded, and was now one of the greatest entertainment companies in the world. Ryou and Yuugi's hometown of Domino was the distribution headquarters for Asia, something that they knew very little about, except to wonder how the Kaiba and Ryuji were doing with the new competition.

* * *

Rose had been disappointed in her Potions, Herbology, and Divination classes since the duel. No matter how much she hinted at the professors, she could not get them to divulge their secret. Her attempts to use divination to uncover it had been quickly thwarted by the pale professor, who had come over to stop her. She would later describe it to her friends, most of whom did not take the class.

_Rose drank a sip of tea and focused her mind on the large hunk of crystal in front of her. She saw... nothing. She couldn't help it, the only thing that appeared in the crystal to her were the imperfections. Even those refused to make shapes for her._

"_If you are having problems, you might be taking the book a little to literally. The book says that you need to look into the crystal, I find it much easier to see when I look through the crystal. Imagine that it is a window, and on the other side are the visions of the future that you are looking for. Remember to keep your subject in mind."_

_Rose closed her eyes again, concentrating, and opened them with a new vengeance. She held a vision of Ryou in her head, and peered through the crystal. As she looked, she began to see movement. There was her teacher, and he was talking to Luna. They were in public somewhere, and Luna pointed up. She laughed, and said something else. Ryou reached for her..._

_The crystal ball lifted, leaving her reeling as her professor took the crystal away. "I do believe you have the hang of it. Now, why don't you try it on your real partner."_

_Embarrassed, Rose looked apologetically at her friend who sat across from her. Ryou set the ball back down, and she started over, now working with her partner's image in her mind._

When even the headmaster's daughter couldn't find out anything new, the rumors had started to flatten out about the two professors. While everyone could see that they were spending more and more time around each other, nobody was sure whether they were friends or there was a burgeoning romance.

However, another whisper was picked up among the students. Everyone knew something about how shadow magic worked. When the duel was over, Malik should have gained something or Yuugi should have been punished. However, it did not appear that either had happened. So, what was the result?

There were some patently ridiculous rumors flying around, of course, there always were. One stated that Yuugi could now no longer see properly, but that his shadow magic somehow made up for it. Then there was the one about one of his old friends in Japan being completely ruined. Neither of them seemed right to Rose.

No, Rose figured that Malik gained something, something that he wasn't sharing with anybody yet. She could tell by looking at her father's face that he didn't know either, and that it was starting to bother him.

Indeed, it was starting to bother Harry. He seemed to be losing control of the school. He needed to reign in the teachers. The shadow magic seemed to be a major cause of chaos within his school and he needed to stop it before it kept destroying the things around here.

By the time he had formulated a plan of action, he had gotten through two more courses in his meal. Putting down his desert fork, he stood and walked into the antechamber. Through there, he could get to his office and his rooms. He wanted to read over some of the post he was getting out of Egypt.

Luna laughed, watching Ryou attempt an aguamenti charm. Try as he might, his water ended up coming out muddy, not the cool, clear drinking water that it was supposed to be. Once, he had come out with wine instead of water, which they tried. It was definitely grape wine, but it tasted horrible. Ryou had pulled out a bottle of French wine to get the taste out of their mouths, and that had been quite good.

Luna had been teaching Ryou during lunches and free times for weeks now, and he had grown quickly in his powers as a wizard. While he did not pack the magical punch that she did, not even to mention Harry or Ginny, some of the most powerful people born in hundreds of years (Harry was rumored to be more powerful than Dumbledore in some ways, though he expressly denied it), his quick wit and knowledge of muggle occultism allowed him to make up for it in many ways. He was almost up to speed with the current sixth years in most subjects, and was nearing OWL levels in transfiguration. His best subjects besides divination were definitely her subjects, which required more mental ability and less power than any other subject taught at Hogwarts.

"Why don't you stop that now, Ryou. Look, your office is soaked. It's disgusting." Of course, a quick drying charm later the office was pristine.

"Well, are you excited for Halloween? It's a big deal at Hogwarts, and I've been put in charge of decorations. Want to help me?"

"I'd love to."

"Good. I have some ideas to give the students a real good time."

Ryou laughed. The look on her face was priceless. She was obviously was very excited to get to work on this. He had loved becoming her friend over the last few weeks. It had started with her lessons, but it had quickly evolved outside of that. Now, they spent a good part of their time together. They even helped each other grade essays, something the students now knew and managed to take advantage of. The little creature that he had given her was now a common sight in the greenhouses, where it would help them water the plants out there.

Luna appeared confused about his good-natured laughter, but not upset. Rather, she enjoyed the sound of his laughter. It had been happening more and more lately, he seemed to be pulling himself out of reach of a certain depression. She knew what Hannah had said he acted like when she discovered him, and Yuugi said he had always been a little depressed, though less so around friends.

It was then that she noticed the time. "Oh, we need to leave, or we'll be late for Harry's meeting."

Ryou looked at the clock as well. "Yes, it appears we had better go."

So the two of them crawled down out of the north tower. Making their way across the school, the pair finally ended up in the small meeting room the teachers sometimes used to meet in and would often retire to when they wanted the company only of people their own age. Taking their seats, they noticed that they were not the last to arrive. Soon, Yuugi took his seat, and Harry called the meeting to order.

"There is a problem I've been having. I've been trying to let you have free reign over what you do in your own time. It seems to have worked for Ginny and Hermione. However, the rest of you don't seem to be able to control yourselves. We've had two teachers have a duel, and the rumors surrounding two others are enough to make a veela blush! And it's not even Halloween yet. By Merlin's beard! What can I do. Believe me when I say that the last thing I want to do is to start cracking down on you, but we haven't had a class in history of magic for how long?"

"Three weeks," Yuugi said, looking down and blushing, obviously chagrined.

"Exactly. You two are lucky that Ryou here was able to take over your other classes. God, how he was able to not only teach three classes but take lessons in white magic from Luna is beyond me! If this keeps up, I'm going to have to start cracking down on you people. Don't think that I won't!"

The two professors that Harry had been chewing out both had strong emotions passing their faces. Yuugi continued to look embarrassed, shrinking back into his chair and making himself seem even smaller than he usually did. Malik on the other hand had fire in his eyes and his fist was clenched. He even appeared to be shaking slightly.

It was Malik that Harry turned his eyes on. "Do you have something you would like to say, Malik?"

Malik calmed down immediately. "N- No."

"Very good. As for you two," he turned on Ryou and Luna. "I have no problem with you two having lessons together, being friends, or even lovers if you like." This brought a blush to Ryou's face. "However, some of the rumors about you are quite... imaginative. I would appreciate it if you did something to dispel them, or I will start to have a problem with how you two spend your time. My daughter is listening to those rumors."

Ryou nodded, a little embarrassed by the rumors about him. "We'll certainly do something about them." Luna's nod confirmed it.

"Thank you. Now that the unpleasant business is taken care of, let's settle down to what we really do: teach. Report, Ginny?"

The rest of the meeting was spent talking about classes and children that were giving them problems. Yuugi spent some time talking about the muggle workshops he still gave from time to time, which seemed to be going well. Luna took some time to mention that Ryou's skills had improved immensely in a very short amount of time.

Then talk came to the upcoming festivities. It was decided that Luna would be in charge of the Halloween decorations and that Hermione would take charge come Christmas time. Several preliminary plans were approved, and work was started on them right away. So, it appeared that for the next couple of days or so, life at Hogwarts was back to what was relatively normal.

It's a bit shorter than I normally try to do, but I wanted to get this up for y'all right away. Anyhow, I want to thank those that reviewed for taking the time to do so, and to ask the rest of you to take the time to do so as well, as it's always appreciated.

Also, please check out another fic I started recently, Blue Eyes Incorporated. It's the story of what happens in Japan at the time that this fic takes place. Both stories are considered cannon in the other, so please take the time to read it. I just got chapter one up, but chapter two is already in the works. A warning: it's even more unusual than this one, and it focuses on the world of Yuugiou rather than the Potterverse. A full explanation of how the affect each other is in my profile.

Also, congratulations to MarzBunni, who is the only one to have gotten the reference correct: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, part of the Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.


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